








c 










^"it. 






% * 



>^ ,'•• . % 






vO' 



^^ :? 



►^.*i^'» 






V 



'^0' 

^•^f^ 










"^U.^^ .»i.O^^ V. '-P. A 



'bV 















,0^ 



<:, J>^ 






.♦^ 



, y'RVf A 



% 






CO 






>«£it.v 






». • • . ^, 






\/.'Mi'- V.^' 



4 * ^^>^'- « A. 






^^-^^ 



V 






ft' 



^x^o* : 



' • * '*»H 



^^ 






■»ot> .'^ 






V 



Ji'. '''^ >*' /- 






» **'^ 



• « * 4r ^.^ * • » • • ^fr 




-ni^o^ 










4^ 

kV . O • • , 







^•. %..^** /.filfe'-. %J> :> 



'- X.<^* 



1* ..V 












y 






4.^ ^^ ^ 





^ * * » » ' ^^ 






• -^ 



.4.-' • 



^.S^^ 
V^ 



.*' 






<5^ 



PROBLEMS IN 
MODERN EDUCATION 

ADDRESSES AND ESSAYS 



BY 
WILLIAM SENECA SUTTON 

Dean of the Department of Education and Professor 

of Educational Administration in 

The University of Texas 




BOSTON 

SHERMAN, FRENCH & COMPANY 

1913 



<' 



i 



v^Ia 



^ 



Copyright, 1913 
Sherman, French & Company 



g)CI,A34365G 
M^ f 



FOREWORD 

This volume is composed of some of the essays 
and addresses which, in spite of the many exact- 
ing duties of a busy professional life, I have 
found time to prepare. All but four of the pa- 
pers here brought together were delivered before 
Texas audiences, two of the exceptions being 
written for national educational societies, the 
third for the Association of Southern Colleges 
and Preparatory Schools, and the fourth for the 
Southern Educational Association. 

The essays and addresses were, in each in- 
stance, born of a desire to meet the demands of a 
practical situation ; and were, therefore, con- 
cerned, not so much with the presentation of ab- 
stract ideals, as with the application of well- 
recognized educational principles to the solution 
of school problems that abound in our day. If 
there be a unifying principle in the several dis- 
cussions, it is that of concrete idealism, which is 
the controlling, characteristic attribute of human 
evolution, and which insists upon the wisdom and 
necessity of reckoning with environment in order 
to obtain desirable results. 

The Authoe. 
The University of Texas. 



CONTENTS 

PAGE 

I The Attitude of the Man of Sci- 
ence TOWARD Educational Criti- 
cism 1 

II Some Contributions of the Nine- 
teenth Century to Educational 
Progress 17 

III Herbert Spencer's Individuality 
AS Manifested in His Educa- 
tional Thinking 38 

IV The Determining Factors of the 
Curriculum of the Secondary 
School 48 

V The Unification of College De- 
grees 71 

VI The Organization of the Depart- 
ment OF Education in Colleges 
AND Universities 100 

VII Contributions of William Torrey 
Harris to the Development of 
Education in America . . . 140 

VIII The Club Woman and the Devel- 
opment OF Educational Public 
Opinion 154 



CONTENTS 

PAGE 

IX The Education of the Modern 

Woman 166 

X The Significance of Christian 
Education in the Twentieth 
Century 189 

XI Some Fundamental Educational 
Principles Applied to the Work 
of the Sunday-School . . . 211 

XII The Education of the Southern 

Negro 228 

Appendix . ... . ... .. ... . . 253 



PROBLEMS IN MODERN EDUCATION 



THE ATTITUDE OF THE MAN OF 
SCIENCE TOWARD EDUCA- 
TIONAL CRITICISM 1 

These are lively times in which we live. The 
unanimity of opinion that obtained among our 
forebears in the savage or the barbarian stage 
of culture has gone apparently forever. Politi- 
cal, industrial, social, and religious insurgents are 
found on every hand, and they are filling the earth 
with their raucous voices. In the world of educa- 
tion, also, there is great unr'est. Critics, lay and 
professional, many of them uninformed, many 
others misinformed, and a few, not many, well in- 
formed, are animadverting upon any and all 
phases of educational endeavor. Opinions widely 
varying, often-times contradictory of one another, 
are expressed concerning the meaning and pur- 
pose of education, as well as concerning the cul- 
ture-materials and the method of procedure by 
which the aim may be wrought out. Great dif- 
ference of opinion is, furthermore, expressed con- 

1 Presidential address delivered at The University of 
Texas, November 18, 1910, before the Texas Academy of 
Science. Printed in the Educational Review of April, 
1912, and included in this volume by permission of the 
publishers. 



2 THE MAN OF SCIENCE AND 

ceming the administration of kindergartens, ele- 
mentary schools, secondary schools, normal 
schools, colleges, universities, trade schools, pro- 
fessional schools, schools secular and religious, and 
schools public and private. Surely, within the 
last few years we have had enough educational 
advice to last an ordinary planet for centuries, 
and the overconservative man is ready to exclaim 
to the advisers in the language of Job : "You 
make me weary," while the radical man rejoiceth 
that the atmosphere of insurgency is invading 
even the most time-honored academic haunts. 

Now, in the midst of this educational confusion, 
which, in the judgment of some good people, prac- 
tically amounts to chaos, what should be the at- 
titude of the man of science, who, as Huxley says, 
"is one who simply employs trained and organized 
common sense, whose methods differ from com- 
mon sense methods only so far as the guardsman's 
cut and thrust differ from the manner in which 
the savage wields his club, whose vast results are 
obtained by the use of no mystical faculties, by 
no mental processes other than those which are 
practiced in the humblest and meanest affairs of 
life".? 2 It is certainly to the man of science, the 
man of sanity, whose opinions regarding any mat- 
ter are formed only after a careful investigation 
and comparison of the facts involved, whose judg- 
ment is not warped by prejudice or self-interest, 

2 Huxley's "Science and Education Essays," Appleton Edi- 
tion, 1898, p. 45. 



EDUCATIONAL CRITICISM 3 

the man who has sense enough to get at the cor- 
rect evaluation of things — it is to this man that 
the educational world must look for a rational 
settlement of our present disturbed conditions. 

I have just now intimated in a general way 
what should be the attitude of the scientific man 
in these days of educational contention; but I 
deem it worth while to spend a short time in 
translating this general statement into somewhat 
more specific terms. 

In the first place, the scientific man of the 
twentieth century should be a man who knows; 
he should be far better informed than his predeces- 
sors of ancient and mediaeval times. He should 
realize the force of Lord Bacon's contention that 
*'Antiquitas seculi is juventus mundi, and that 
these times are the ancient times, when the world 
is ancient; that those elder generations fell short 
of many of our present knowledges ; that they 
knew but a small part of the world, and but a 
brief period of history ; that we, on the contrary, 
are acquainted with a far greater extent of the 
world, besides having uncovered a new hemi- 
sphere, and we look back and survey long periods 
of history." ^ 

The scientific man now needs that kind of in- 
tellectual equipment that makes him the heir of 
the ages, that renders him competent to sit in 
judgment, and that gives him the right to ex- 

s Quoted from an article on Lord Bacon by Von Raumer 
in Barnard's "English Pedagogy," p. 86. 



4 THE MAN OF SCIENCE AND 

press, without apology, the conclusions he has 
reached. When a large number of men so quali- 
fied shall have turned their attention to educa- 
tional matters, many vagaries with which the 
popular, and even the professional, mind is af- 
flicted, will enter upon the sleep that knows no 
waking, and the time will speedily come when the 
man armed with only superficial knowledge, gath- 
ered at odd times on the run, will be accorded no 
respect whatever, and when, the crust of his stupid 
egotism having been broken, he will no longer have 
the courage to present, with any degree of as- 
surance, his half-baked notions. On the coming 
of that day there will be great rejoicing in the 
world of learning for the publication of articles, 
bulletins, and books for which there is neither 
justification nor excuse, will then be placed under 
the ban. 

Again, to be intellectually qualified to deal with 
educational problems, the scientific man will real- 
ize how tremendously complex is the question of 
education. As the life of man becomes more and 
more varied, as more intricate and more difficult 
phases of human activity appear from age to age, 
so the education which obtained in the days of the 
primitive man, simple in philosophy, in means and 
in method, has, by slow processes of evolution, 
lost its simplicity, and it is now struggling to 
respond to the demands that grow out of the com- 
plex conditions of modern society. 

It is just here, in the evolution of the school, 



EDUCATIONAL CRITICISM 5 

to meet changed and changing conditions, that 
the services of the man who knows are of the 
greatest value. Perhaps the most imperative 
need at the present day is the development of 
the truly scientific spirit among those charged 
with the direction of educational institutions ; for 
it is only that spirit that can think into unity 
the many diverse phases of the problem, and can 
assign to each phase its proper place and rank. 

The fundamental defect in pedagogical think- 
ing has been the over-emphasis given to some one 
feature of human development at the expense of 
other features no less important. It is the sci- 
entific man that thinks whole thoughts, that rare 
form of thinking for the want of which the Greeks, 
as Socrates pointed out, lost the very foundations 
of intellectual and moral progress. It was a sim- 
ilar mistake made during the Middle Ages when 
education was conceived to be confined to other- 
worldly interests exclusively. It was again shown 
by the humanistic movement, which, notwithstand- 
ing the incalculable blessings which it brought to 
the world of learning and the world of action, 
itself became enfeebled by lifting into undue promi- 
nence the linguistic phase of education, or rather, 
by refusing to recognize other phases just as nec- 
essary. Another kindred error is perpetuated 
even in our own day by those who clamor for only 
practical, utilitarian policies to dominate the 
school. 

Now, it is the man of science, who, endowing 



6 THE MAN OF SCIENCE AND 

and fortifjing himself with the truth that is re- 
vealed by the study of the world's best thought 
and by first-hand investigation of education as it 
actually exists to-day, will be able to seize upon 
the elements of permanent worth in all of these 
conflicting theories. 

The opinion is here advanced that, as a result 
of his study, he will contend that, as there are 
all-enduring elements in human nature, there are 
also certain enduring forms of human culture, 
forms which the accident of occupation or nation- 
ality should not eliminate; that every human be- 
ing bom into the world is born with the intent 
that the possibilities of humanity may be realized 
in him, and that, therefore, any educational policy 
which tends to convert man into a mere work- 
animal, that seeks to peasantize him, that aims to 
professionalize him without humanizing him, that 
labors to produce an animal like unto a strong 
beast of the forest, or that seeks in any way to 
abridge opportunities for the full fruitage of his 
entire human nature, is to be condemned, and 
that without remedy. 

Is it not safe to conclude, therefore, that knowl- 
edge is the first essential attribute of the man of 
science, enabling him to keep his balance in the 
midst of educational upheavals, and to maintain 
his serenity of spirit in the midst of a perfect babel 
of voices? Surely, this is a lesson that democra- 
cies should learn, that knowledge, real knowledge, 
bom of the travail of thought and experience, 



EDUCATIONAL CRITICISM 7 

differentiating as it does, the physician from the 
quack, the lawyer from the shyster, the states- 
man from the demagogue, is likewise the first in- 
dispensable element of educational sanity and 
progress. 

In the second place, the attitude of the man of 
science should be strongly marked by a strong and 
ready sympathy. To the normal mind the whole 
wide world is full of valuable and interesting phys- 
ical and spiritual phenomena, and it would, there- 
fore, seem to be obviously foolish, not to say 
wicked, for an educational worker to entertain 
feelings of indifference or hostility towards work- 
ers in reputable fields other than the one in which 
he himself is engaged; but, alas, in education it 
is too often the perfectly obvious, the self-evident, 
the axiomatic that must be proved. It is for the 
want of this actual sympathy that the elective 
system in colleges was for years the storm-center 
of discussion. Upon occasions without number 
natural scientists and classicists engaged in de- 
bates in which there was manifested far more heat 
than light, and all for the want of an intelligent 
regard on the part of each debater for the sub- 
ject represented by the other. The narrow spe- 
cialist who loses touch with experts in other 
branches of learning is cultivating that mental 
blindness which, according to the late lamented 
William James, causes one to be forward in pro- 
nouncing on the meaninglessness of forms of ex- 
istence other than his own, which prevents hira 



8 THE MAN OF SCIENCE AND 

from tolerating and respecting those other forms, 
and which renders him unable to realize that 
neither the whole of truth nor the whole of good 
is revealed to any single human being.^ To ex- 
press the same thought in another way : It is 
the cultivation of egoistic feelings that has made 
it so difficult to settle the vexed question of the 
elective system. Even to-day one not infre- 
quently reads that the elective system has broken 
down, and there is a great rejoicing by a certain 
type of mind that there is held out the hope of a 
return to the good old days of the cast-iron cur- 
riculum, when everybody had to learn what was 
required of everybody else seeking academic dis- 
tinction. 

It is this want of sympathy that sometimes 
causes one to hear with eagerness that students 
studying the classics do so under protest and with 
great listlessness ; but at the same time he is 
altogether forgetful of an actual and very ma- 
terial fact that there are many students, or rather 
pseudo-students, pursuing other than classical 
studies, whom ex-President Patton, of Princeton, 
once described in these words : 

"The student says to his teacher 'You are the edu- 
cator, and I am the educatee. Now, educate me if 
you can.' " 

It is because of this inability to appreciate 

another's point of view that the college professor 

* James's "Talks to Teachers on Psychology," pp. 263-4. 



EDUCATIONAL CRITICISM 9 

not infrequently underestimates the value and the 
necessity of the executive man. For example, on 
one occasion a member of a university faculty, a 
man noted in two continents for his scholastic 
attainments, said to me: "Do you know what I 
would do if I were elected a college president?" 
I replied, *'I have not the remotest idea." Where- 
upon, he remarked, "I would resign at once in 
order that I might abolish the office." 

The professor's remark might prove wholesome, 
if not comforting, to the college president here 
and there; but the professor, himself, together 
with not a few of his contemporaries who sym- 
pathize too deeply with themselves, and who are 
suffering from inability to do justice in estimating 
the services of the executive man, would do well 
to recall a passage to be found in Cicero's "De 
Senectute," a passage which may be translated 
rather freely as follows : 

"Downright stupid is the argument of those who 
contend that, while some of the sailors aboard a ves- 
sel are climbing the masts, while others are running 
up and down the decks, and while still others are 
emptying the bilge-water, the pilot, holding the helm 
and sitting at the stern at his ease, is a mere use- 
less and ornamental supernumerary. Their judg- 
ment is foolish indeed, for it is the pilot by whose 
talent, authority, and judgment the course of the ship 
is directed, and the safety of all on board is guaran- 
teed." 

My friend, the professor, and those of his class. 



10 THE MAN OF SCIENCE AND 

seem to forget that the average college president 
stands sorely in need of qualifications of the high- 
est order, which were thus described by Dean 
John O. Reed, of the College of Arts of the Uni- 
versity of Michigan, who, when that institution 
was in search of a successor to President Angell, 
gave this advice: 

"He should bring to the University the financial 
genius of Messrs. Morgan, Carnegie and Rocke- 
feller combined, then possibly salaries might go up. 
He should possess the united powers of research of 
Darwin, of Pasteur, of Helmholz, and of Mommsen, 
then maybe 'productive scholarship' would get a 
show. He should be able to organize and disorgan- 
ize railroads, mergers, trusts and holding companies 
with a skill and finesse that would make J. J. Hill 
or E. H. Harriman look like one of Mr. Heinz's 
fifty-seven varieties; this would encourage economic 
and business administration. All this for the glory 
and the advancement of Alma Mater: For his own 
individual needs the new president should have the 
ideas, the ideals, the forceful rhetoric, and the per- 
sistent purpose of T. Roosevelt, Esq., also the eye- 
glasses and the teeth; he should have an epidermis 
equal to two thicknesses of sole leather and the 
forceful, striking manner of Professor John H. Sul- 
livan. He may then be able to meet the legislature, 
the Board of Regents, or his separate faculties and 
make each of them 'sit up.' Like bad boys in school 
we can each of us think of at least one professor 
who has been 'spoiling for a licking for months/ and 
the new president ought to get to him quick." 



EDUCATIONAL CRITICISM 11 

There are, perhaps, not a few members of col- 
lege faculties in America who have read with sat- 
isfaction an article in a recent number of the Na- 
tion, containing this sentence: 

"There is a fine opening for a new institution to 
show what the college can be wherein the personal 
domination by the president is abandoned; and in its 
stead we have a company of gentlemen and scholars 
working together, with the president simply as the 
efficient center of inspiration and cooperation." 

It would be well, however, for college profes- 
sors and the general public to know what a very 
capable college president has said in reply to the 
suggestion just now quoted. This college presi- 
dent, who is a scholar, also, says : 

"Concerning this statement two things may be said 
with a considerable amount of emphasis. The first 
is that the condition described in the last four lines 
is precisely what is to be found at every American 
college and university that is worthy of the name, 
and that no evidence to the contrary has ever been 
produced by anybody. The second is that, while the 
attempt to create a contrary impression may be orig- 
inally due to ignorance, when persisted in, it can 
only be attributed to malice." ^ 

Many other absurd and very unseemly conten- 
tions now misdirecting and dissipating the ener- 

B Nicholas Murray Butler in Educational Review, yd- 
ume 40, p. 324. 



12 THE MAN OF SCIENCE AND 

gies of the world's educational workers would cease 
if only the spirit of hospitality, of real friendli- 
ness, of genuine opcn-mindedness should be allowed 
to have free course. With that spirit dominant, 
such questions as academic freedom, the autonomy 
of the high school, the education of woman upon 
equal terms with man, the respective provinces 
of the normal school and of the university depart- 
ment of education, the value of various forms of 
industrial education, high standards for profes- 
sional degrees, the democratizing of all education, 
and scores of other vexatious problems could be, 
and would be, peacefully and easily settled, for 
the issues would then be determined, not in that 
gladiatorial arena, where the weapons used are 
prejudice and lung-power, but in the realm of 
amicable conference, where reason is the arbiter, 
and where every worthy cause is guaranteed a 
decent, respectful hearing. 

But the scientific man, in his attitude towards 
educational criticism, in addition to the attributes 
of rational knowledge and sympathetic feeling, will 
manifest executive disposition and power — he will 
carry over into the world of action what is alike 
dictated by his reason and prompted by his heart. 
If, for example, a well-informed layman, and one 
unusually interested in the welfare of colleges, takes 
the time and the pains to write two volumes,® di- 

6 Birdseye's "Individual Training in our Colleges," 407 
pp. (The MacmiUan Co., New York), and Birdseye's "The 
Re-organization of our Colleges," 396 pp. 



EDUCATIONAL CRITICISM 13 

recting attention in one to what he conceives to 
be the fundamental defect in college life, and in 
the other to the advisability of a thorough re- 
organization of the modern college, the scientific 
man, if convinced of the correctness of the sug- 
gestions made, will at once give his support to the 
reforms proposed. When an especially compe- 
tent and fair-minded critic publishes the results 
of his twenty years' educational observation and 
experience,' pointing out clearly and unmistak- 
ably that efficient teaching, as well as rational re- 
search, is a legitimate function, an imperative 
function of the university, and when the same 
author exposes, not in malice, but in the interest 
of truth, the actual status of the medical schools 
in America,^ the truly scientific man will not 
brush aside every suggestion by exclaiming in the 
language of race bigotry, "There is nothing of 
value in the lucubrations of this man ; his name, 
Abraham, is enough for me." He who needs to 
make no apology for his professional conduct, 
will accept at its true worth every criticism, 
whether made by Jew or Gentile, realizing the 
faithfulness of the wounds of a friend, and dem- 
onstrating his own integrity and courage by ref- 

TFlexner's "The American College," 235 pp. (The Cen- 
tury Company, New York.) 

8 "Medical Education in the United States and Canada: 
A Report to the Carnegie Foundation for the Advance- 
ment of Teaching," by Abraham Flexner, 326 pp. (Pub- 
lished as Bulletin No. 4, by the Carnegie Foundation for 
the Advancement of Teaching, New York.) 



14 THE MAN OF SCIENCE AND 

ormatlon of life, even though it lead to the de- 
struction of long-cherished ideals or to the elimi- 
nation of an educational institution that for years 
may have, because of either ignorance or malice 
aforethought, been deceiving the people. 

I have cited only three or four instances in 
^hich the scientific man should manifest his will- 
power in order that educational ideals pass into 
substantial realities ; but, especially in a demo- 
cratic country, where assertion too often passes 
for argument and impudence for wisdom, the op- 
portunities to render such service are great in 
both number and variety. The continuous dem- 
onstration of courage in seizing these opportuni- 
ties will indeed be valuable, for it will establish 
the fundamental truth unknown as yet in some 
regions, that in school affairs school men are 
the natural and legitimate leaders, without whose 
leadership an absolutely essential element in the 
promotion of rational progress is wanting. It 
may require some nerve to do so ; but, when the 
proper occasion offers, the scientific man, the man 
who knows, should not hesitate to submit evidence 
of the inefficiency of the schools of his own com- 
munity or his own state. A little stiflfen- 
ing of the backbone is sometimes needed to con- 
vince a people in a democratic state of society 
that the separation of their schools from the do- 
main of partisan politics must be accomplished if 
the schools be saved. Some firmness must be 
shown if tax-payers are to be converted to the 



EDUCATIONAL CRITICISM 15 

doctrine that, in the equipment and the main- 
tenance of the modern school, liberality of invest- 
ment is the part of wisdom, while parsimony is 
foolish, if not criminal. To stand for the scien- 
tific study of education in any of its phases, to 
contend that such study, dealing, as it does, with 
the evolution of man, is as difficult and as impor- 
tant as any other branch of human learning, will, 
in some places, require the exhibition of no small 
degree of determination. 

But it is this display of executive energy that 
furnishes the real test of human worth, a uni- 
versal truth the delightful Portia, in "The Mer- 
chant of Venice," expresses in these words: "If 
to do were as easy as to know what were good 
to do, then chapels had been churches, and poor 
men's cottages princes' palaces." If the educa- 
tional world is to make advance, the strenuous 
life must be lived, and the man of science will 
fail to make good if he confine himself to an aca- 
demic or a sentimental view of the world, and if 
he do not bring things to pass. Holding fast 
to this truth, he will lend his aid when the fresh- 
water college is summoned to trial before the 
bar of public opinion (and the day is not far 
distant when that trial will occur), when cam- 
paigns to insure better support, better organi- 
zation, and better teachers for the schools are 
inaugurated, and when any other righteous re- 
form of education calls at an opportune time for 
volunteers. 



16 EDUCATIONAL CRITICISM 

In conclusion, I am rejoiced that the signs of 
the times warrant the belief and the hope that 
scientific men, blessed with knowledge and insight, 
endowed with charity and catholicity of spirit, 
and stimulated by courage and confidence, are 
destined to exercise greater and greater influence 
in educational affairs. Few of these men, it is 
true, will be accorded places in the world's pan- 
theon of fame; thousands of them, avoiding the 
lime-light of publicity, will patiently work in 
obscurity, perfectly content if only the principles 
they espouse shall eventually be triumphant. 
Nevertheless, it will be through the labors of such 
men, eflicient in service, but neither officious nor 
offensive in performance, that mighty achieve- 
ments in the educational world will be won. To 
them the accomplishment will be dearer than the 
credit therefor ; but, when truth's record is finally 
made up, each of them will be found worthy of 
such a tribute as Kipling, in his "Pharaoh and 
the Sergeant," thus pays to the nameless heroes 
sent by England "to make a man of Pharaoh" : 

"But he did it on the cheap and on the quiet, 
And he's not allowed to forward any claim — 

Though he drilled a black man white, though he make 
a mummy fight, 
He will still continue Sergeant What-is-name — 

Private, Corporal, Color-Sergeant, and Instructor — 
But the everlasting miracle's the same!" 



II 



SOME CONTRIBUTIONS OF THE NINE- 
TEENTH CENTURY TO EDU- 
CATIONAL PROGRESS ' 

It is a comparatively easy task for the believer 
in social evolution to exhibit the great progress 
the world made from 1801 to 1901 in the four 
great institutions of the family, the church, civil 
society, and the state. It is the purpose of this 
paper, however, to set forth, at least partially, 
the changes wrought in that other institution, 
the school, changes which have been as marvelous 
and as far-reaching as those which have occurred 
in any other field of human endeavor. It is 
proper to state as a further preliminary that the 
marked educational influence of other agencies is 
duly recognized, but that, on this occasion, it is 
desired to confine the term education to that 
single institution which has for its sole function 
the purposeful training of the young. 

In the first place, the Nineteenth Century has, 
by reason of its spirit of critical investigation, 
completely changed the world's idea respecting 
the aim in education. In former centuries sev- 
eral aims obtained. Among the ancient Jews, for 

1 A paper read before the Texas Academy of Science, 
June 10, 1901, 

17 



18 SOME CONTRIBUTIONS TO 

example, it was that of a pious, virtuous life seek- 
ing to reach the ideal of holiness commanded by 
the Almighty. Among the Spartans and the Ro- 
mans it was the splendid physical training and 
the unswerving patriotism necessary to promote 
the safety and majesty of the state. Among the 
Athenians it was the harmony of moral, physical, 
and intellectual development, the aesthetic element 
being dominant. Among the early Christians 
celestial citizenship was the controlling ideal. 
With the educators of the Renaissance the aim 
was learning, and learning confined chiefly to the 
ancient classics of Greece and Rome. 

But the world-spirit of the Nineteenth Century 
could not be satisfied with any of these partial 
aims, for new conceptions of human life, brought 
about by new conditions, demanded that educa- 
tion should result in something more than the pro- 
duction of a kind of pietism, which, by reason of 
its disregard of human relationships, is danger- 
ously akin to mysticism. Nor could the narrow 
view that man is to become a mere creature of 
the state, a tool for civic use, or the mere creature 
of any social whole, be longer tolerated, for the 
belief in the doctrine insisted upon by Kant that 
every human being is his own end, is fundamental 
to the ideal of modern education. The idea that 
either the body or the soul should receive exclusive 
attention could not longer survive, nor could ad- 
herence to mere scholarship as an ideal be longer 
maintained. 



EDUCATIONAL PROGRESS 19 

That ancient and medieval educational ideas 
have been discarded, the testimony of hundreds of 
eminent thinkers of the Nineteenth Century and 
the practices of the better schools throughout the 
civilized world furnish abundant evidence. Let us 
briefly examine only a small portion of that evi- 
dence. 

Herbart, the successor of Kant at Konigsburg, 
declared that the only and the whole work of edu- 
cation can be summed up in the concept morality. 
"Morality," says he, "is universally recognized 
as the highest aim of humanity and, consequently, 
of education" ; but he goes a step further and de- 
clares that morality is the whole aim of both hu- 
manity and education ; but it is a morality which 
is founded upon, and includes, enlightenment and 
training of the whole self through the development 
of many-sided interest. 

In Herbert Spencer's essay, "What Knowledge 
is of Most Worth?" which was published in 1859, 
and which attracted world-wide attention, the aim 
is defined thus : "To prepare us for complete liv- 
ing is the function which education has to dis- 
charge." By complete living Spencer does not 
mean living in the mere material sense, but in the 
widest sense. "The general problem which com- 
prehends every special problem," he contends, "is 
the right ruling of conduct in all directions under 
all circumstances — in what manner to treat the 
body ; in what way to treat the mind ; in what way 
to manage our affairs ; in what way to bring up 



20 SOME CONTRIBUTIONS TO 

a family ; in what way to behave as a citizen ; in 
what way to utilize all those sources of happiness 
which nature supplies ; and how to use all our fac- 
ulties to the greatest advantage to ourselves and 
others. And this being the great thing needful 
for us to learn, is, by consequence, the great thing 
which education is to teach." 

Rosenkranz expresses the generally accepted 
view when he says : "Education has for its end 
to lead man to actualize himself through his own 
efforts." Tompkins expresses a similar view in 
these words: "Teaching is the process by which 
one mind of set purpose produces the life-unfold- 
ing process in another." Dr. William T. Harris 
has formulated the aim in these words : "Educa- 
tion is to elevate the individual to the level of the 
species." 

But it is useless to multiply quotations bearing 
upon this point. The educator of to-day, 
through the labors of his predecessors of the last 
century, has obtained clear vision of the true goal 
of education. He understands, as it has never 
before been understood, that to be educated means 
to be prepared to enter efficiently and hopefully 
upon the work of the world's civilization ; it means 
to have interest and power and skill with respect 
to the several phases of human life ; it means, in 
one word, to become a man intellectually, morally, 
physically ; a man in all the fullness and glory 
that have, through the evolution of the race, 
found a place in the content of that term. 



EDUCATIONAL PROGRESS gl 

It was reserved, furthermore, for the Nineteenth 
Century to discover and formulate the specific 
aims of elementary, of secondary, and of higher 
education, an achievement which has served to 
organize and rationalize the whole process of the 
school, and which has assigned definite functions 
to each period of school life. The aim of the 
elementary school, which is to occupy the time of 
the child from the age of six to fourteen years, is 
to give him a mastery of the school arts, such as 
reading, writing, and arithmetic, as well as some 
degree of skill in their use. It is not expected 
that the pupil in the elementary school will gain 
a mastery of nature or of human nature. The 
law of his being is such as to preclude his dealing 
in a thorough manner with such subjects as re- 
quire a careful, discriminating, and exact judg- 
ment. The pupil here looks upon each event in 
his mental progress as largely independent of 
every other event. He lives in the realm of the 
particular, and he is, therefore, on account of his 
intellectual infancy, unable to draw logical con- 
clusions with reference to the nature of things 
or to the conduct of life. 

The distinctive aim of the secondary school is 
to furnish the pupil with general culture, that is 
to say, to give him insight into the world of hu- 
man learning. The general culture is to disclose 
to him the real nature of life and is to show him, 
by means of the close relationship existing be- 
tween his school studies and life in the world, the 



22 SOME CONTRIBUTIONS TO 

possibilities that are spread out before him. 

The aim of higher education is to give a mas- 
tery over some particular field of human learning. 
It presupposes on the part of the student such 
previous training as has furnished substantial 
foundation for the successful prosecution of the 
work of the specialist. 

The Nineteenth Century, having transformed 
the aim in education, it followed as a natural con- 
sequence that the materials of instruction should 
likewise be altered. The curricula of the elemen- 
tary and the secondary schools of the great na- 
tions of the world to-day provide for instruction 
in the two great groups of human learning, one 
pertaining to nature, and the other to human na- 
ture. This expansion of the curricula was born 
of the world-wide belief that the traditional tripos 
of Latin, Greek and mathematics produced a one- 
sided development, a development, too, that has 
too little bearing upon the problems of life. The 
school, being free from the domination of arti- 
ficial aims, has to a great degree been free from 
the use of artificial means. It is for this reason 
that the study of the vernacular has assumed a 
dignity co-ordinate with that of other languages, 
and has, in fact, supplanted the ancient languages 
for use in the beginning of the child's education. 
While the vernacular has not, in some quarters, 
been regarded as highly as it should have been, 
yet these words, uttered by the common-sense 
philosopher, John Locke, do not now justly apply 



EDUCATIONAL PROGRESS 23 

to many an institution in Great Britain and Amer- 
ica: "If any one among us have a facility or a 
purity more than ordinary in his mother tongue, 
it is owing to chance or his genius or anything 
rather than to his education or any care of his 
teacher." No doctrine in education has been more 
completely removed from the realm of debate than 
that training in the use of one's own tongue 
wherein he is born, and in which and with which 
he is to live his intellectual life, is an indispensable 
factor in a liberal education. 

Time forbids a detailed statement concerning 
other subjects, which, for the purpose of general 
culture, are to be found in the curriculum of the 
elementary and secondary schools. I may, there- 
fore, be allowed to say, somewhat dogmatically, 
that the curriculum which is inherited by the 
Twentieth Century contains five co-ordinate 
groups of study, as follows : 

1. That group by which nature in its quanti- 
tative aspect is considered, including mathematics, 
physics, chemistry, etc. 

2. The biologic group, which explains the 
phenomena of nature in their qualitative aspect. 

At least a general knowledge of these two 
groups is conceived to be necessary for one to 
understand the physical world in which he lives, 
and is equally necessary for him to understand 
the existing forms of domestic, social, industrial, 
political, and even religious life, for, while it is 
unquestionably true that man's conquests in the 



24 SOME CONTRIBUTIONS TO 

realm of natural science have been the means by 
which he has conquered the forces of nature, it 
is also true that they have been made to contribute 
largely to the result of that higher contest in 
which man has gained the victory over himself. 

The third, fourth and fifth groups of study re- 
late to man, exhibiting him in his three-fold na- 
ture of intellect, sensibility and will. In gram- 
mar, for example, which is a representative of the 
thought-group of studies, the pupil learns that 
man is a thinking being, becomes acquainted with 
the nature of thought, and finds revealed one phase 
of his own existence. In the study of literature, 
which represents the art group of studies, he learns 
something of the ideals of humanity, and ulti- 
mately perceives how surpassingly good is that 
which is beautiful. The study of history, which 
represents another group of human nature stud- 
ies, reveals man in his volitional aspect. While 
literature sets forth ideals to be reached, history 
records those to which man, b}'^ the exercise of 
will, has already attained. 

Training in these five groups of study un- 
doubtedly finds its raison d'etre in the modern 
aim in education, and, properly carried on, real- 
izes that aim, furnishing the youth continuous 
opportunity for the development of his entire 
being, giving him acquaintance not only with the 
externalities of life, but also with that inner 
spirit which is the very essence of life, individual 
and social. 



EDUCATIONAL PROGRESS 25 

The modern educational ideal has had marked 
influence in changing the curriculum of the college 
and university, also. It would be interesting to 
trace the evolution of this curriculum during the 
last one hundred years ; but I deem it sufficient to 
give the final result only. It cannot be better 
stated than in this paragraph, taken from an 
article which was recently written by President 
Jordan of Leland Stanford Junior University: 

"Each man should follow as near as may be that 
line of effort which will do the most for him, which 
will enable him to realize the best possibilities of his 
own life. There is no single curriculum, no ideal 
curriculum, and any prearranged course of advanced 
study is an affront to the mind of the real student. 
. . . Among men must exist a division of labor. 
No one man can master even a single branch of sci- 
ence. Mastery means willingness to forego knowl- 
edge in other fields. . . . The course of study 
thus is a relic of mediaevalism. . . . The key- 
note to the education of the future must be con- 
structive individualismi. . . . We may answer 
Mr. Spencer's question: 'What knowledge is of the 
most worth?' — that which is worth most to me. The 
mission of the university is to furnish this knowl- 
edge, just this knowledge which I need, and to fur- 
nish it to me." 

In matters pertaining to school discipline the 
Nineteenth Century made remarkable progress. 
In olden times, the authority of the schoolmaster 
was considered the chief element in discipline ; the 



26 SOME CONTRIBUTIONS TO 

rod, which was his first, as well as his last, resort, 
became the symbol of his office. In the schools of 
ancient Rome, daily lessons began at an early 
hour, and we are told that the screams of the pu- 
pils, caused by the blows of their teachers, were 
a source of so great annoyance that gentlemen 
living near tlio schools, and yet desirous of pro- 
longing their morning slumbers, were obliged to 
remove their quarters to quieter neighborhoods. 
Montaigne gives this testimony concerning the 
schools of his day: 

"It [the school] is a real house of correction of 
imprisoned youth. They are made debauched before 
they are so. Do but come in when they are about 
their lessons, and you shall hear nothing but the 
outcries of boys under execution, with the thundering 
noise of their pedagogues, drunk with fury. . . 
A cursed and pernicious way of proceeding! 
How much more decent it would be to see their 
classes strewn with green leaves and fine flowers 
than with the bloody stumps of birch and willows !" 

But with Pestalozzi's experiment in Stanz, 
which took place near the close of the Eighteenth 
Century, kindness, love, and rationality of pro- 
cedure have become more and more prominent in 
the management of schools. Corporal punish- 
ment is more and more passing into disuse, for it 
is now generally believed that intellectual and 
moral results are to be achieved through the use 
of intellectual and moral means. Compulsory 



EDUCATIONAL PROGRESS 27 

obedience may do in the management of dumb 
creatures ; but in the development of a race of 
freemen it is singularly unreasonable and uni- 
formly unsuccessful. It Is for this reason that, 
in the school, which is founded to unfold the pow- 
ers and, thereby, the freedom of the human 
spirit, arbitrary, autocratic, despotic government 
should not be tolerated. Because of the fact that 
a man is worth only as much as his will is worth, 
it follows that one great function in the manage- 
ment of children is to cultivate the continuous 
free expression of human wills along right lines 
of conduct. 

The political significance of this doctrine of 
freedom was thus emphasized in an address de- 
livered before the Edinburgh Philosophical Society 
some years ago by Thomas F. Bayard, the Min- 
ister of the United States to Great Britain: 

"The freedom of its individual members is the 
essential basis of the freedom of the state. The in- 
dividual freedom of man's mind and soul is the in- 
strumentality by which the world under the very laws 
of its origin and progress has been raised from bru- 
tality and barbarism to its present state of civiliza- 
tion." 

The introduction of the democratic Ideal Into 
the management of the school is, however, by no 
means Inconsistent with that other Idea, that the 
individual must have regard for law and for 
righteous authority. In fact. It Is through the 



28 SOME CONTRIBUTIONS TO 

sovereignty of law that the freedom of the indi- 
vidual is to be protected and fostered. 

Again, the Nineteenth Century has discovered 
and fonnulated a body of doctrines with respect 
to procedure in instruction, thereby bringing def- 
initeness and sanity into method in teaching. 
Rousseau, who, as it were, was an eloquent voice 
crying in the wilderness, noted the complete ab- 
sence of scientific knowledge in the practice of the 
schools of his day, and, hence, declared that, if 
one should desire to teach aright, he should adopt 
policies diametrically opposed to those in vogue. 
In his day, as in the centuries preceding, it had 
not occurred even to the guild of schoolmasters 
that there is any vital relation between psychology 
and pedagogy, and so teaching was little more 
than a mechanical process. In the Nineteenth 
Century, however, through rational, practical 
study of real psychology, some fundamental edu- 
cational laws have been established, and have been 
made to lend dignity and certainty to the teaching 
process. Method, therefore, according to the 
modern notion, is not a mere trick or a device de- 
termined by the fancy or the peculiarity of the 
teacher, or by the age, sex, or nationality of the 
pupil, but by laws governing the development of 
the human mind. Through the application of 
this simple truth, teaching has been removed from 
the plane of empiricism, and has been placed 
among truly scientific pursuits. 

In the method of the old education there were 



EDUCATIONAL PROGRESS 29 

but two prominent factors — the cultivation of the 
memory for words, and compulsory obedience 
through fear of punishment. The new education 
rejects as unsound and irrational the study of 
mere words, and insists that the process of teach- 
ing, from beginning to end, shall be concerned 
with ideas, and ideas, too, that are to be gained 
by the self-activity of the pupil. The method of 
the old education was dogmatic: all truth was 
thought to be known, and the pupil was to accept 
it without daring to call it in question: the mod- 
ern teacher's method is inductive, and stimulates 
the pupil to examine things for himself, compare 
them for himself, and express his own conclusions 
for himself. The method of the old education 
laid an embargo upon thought; that of the new 
education is in harmony with the belief that, 
through freedom of thought, is to come the glori- 
fication of the race. The method of the old edu- 
cation relied upon fear as the supreme motive to 
learning; the method of the new education relies 
upon the inherent interest in the subjects of study. 
That this great change has taken place, is at- 
tested by every well-conducted oral recitation, by 
every real science lesson, by every map, by every 
piece of apparatus, and by every laboratory of the 
present day. 

The fact that the Nineteenth Century attached 
new and great importance to method, led inevi- 
tably to another advance in education, the estab- 
lishing of schools for the professional education 



30 SOME CONTRIBUTIONS TO 

of teachers. Early in the century Pestalozzi, 
after the failure of his work in Stanz, in Burg- 
dorf, and Munchenbuchsee, established in Yverdun 
what was, perhaps, the most celebrated institute 
of which the history of education gives account. 
The dominant thought of its founder was that, 
since the elevation of the people depends upon 
their education, it is absolutely necessary that 
those who engage in educational work be prepared 
therefor by special training. For years his in- 
stitute was the center of the greatest pedagogic 
interest. Many teachers from European coun- 
tries and from America found tlieir way to Yver- 
dun to study under the direction of Father Pesta- 
lozzi and his assistants. The Prussian govern- 
ment, for example, sent seventeen young men to 
take a three-year course in order that they might 
return to their fatherland prepared, as the Prus- 
sian minister of instruction said, "not only in mind 
and judgment, but also in heart, for the high 
function they were to follow." It was the spirit 
of Pestalozzi which these young men and others 
imbibed, and which was infused into the German 
schools, and which has made the schools of that 
nation famous for pedagogic excellence. From 
the Germans other nations have borrowed the idea 
of professional training and to-day teachers' 
seminaries, colleges for the training of teachers, 
normal schools, and schools of education in uni- 
versities furnish the most positive evidence that 
the doctrine of special education for teachers is 



EDUCATIONAL PROGRESS 31 

one which this century will not be called upon to 
establish. The attitude of universities, which are 
the most conservative of all institutions of learn- 
ing, instead of being hostile to this doctrine, is 
distinctly favorable. During the last quarter of 
a century all the leading universities of America 
have provided for instruction especially planned 
for men and women who expect to adopt teaching 
as their vocation. Occasionally in university cir- 
cles even yet one hears that scholarship is the 
sole qualification for successful teaching; but this 
opinion, which is expressed by persons who draw 
conclusions from insufficient data, is certainly ob- 
solescent, if it has not already reached the stage 
of the obsolete. 

The Nineteenth Century, furthermore, decided 
that education should not be confined to the privi- 
leged few, the clergy and the nobles. The doc- 
trine of universal education which Comenius had 
advocated in the Seventeenth Century had to wait 
for two hundred years or more to receive practical 
recognition. Even Rousseau, the great apostle 
of human rights in the Eighteenth Century, 
frankly said that men in the lowly walks of life 
have no need of education. But, in the last hun- 
dred years, in all civilized lands, provision has 
been more or less adequately made for the in- 
struction of all classes and conditions of society, 
females, as well as males, the poor, as well as the 
rich. 

In order that this idea of universal education 



32 SOME CONTRIBUTIONS TO 

might become effective it was necessary that it 
be placed under the control of the state. For 
ages the church had been the dominant power in 
the management of schools, and, notwithstanding 
the fact that tuition was free to paupers, large 
numbers of the people, even in the most enlight- 
ened countries, were illiterate. For many reasons 
the failure of the church to provide education 
for all, and education of the right kind, was in- 
evitable. Early in the Nineteenth Century the 
new doctrine that education for the masses should 
be added to the functions of the state, received a 
wonderful impulse from the labors of Pestalozzi, 
who may be justly considered the father of pop- 
ular education. Fichte's addresses to the Ger- 
man nation, delivered in Berlin shortly after the 
victory of the French at Jena in 1806, had 
marked effect in producing the conviction that 
education is fundamentally necessary to the up- 
building of a nation. The king of Prussia him- 
self was persuaded to this belief, saying, "We 
have lost in territory, our power and credit have 
fallen ; but we must, and will, go to work to gain 
in power and credit at home. It is for this rea- 
son that I desire above everything that the great- 
est attention be given to the education of the 
people." It is a well-known story how the develop- 
ment of an efficient system of popular schools re- 
generated the German states, and how it resulted 
finally in the wiping out the disgrace of Jena 
with the victory at Sedan and the triumphant 



EDUCATIONAL PROGRESS 33 

entry of the German troops into the capital of 
France, and how France, in turn, learning a 
valuable lesson from her calamity, at once began 
active work to rebuild her fallen fortunes through 
the ministry of education. In the last twenty- 
five years she has established and equipped an edu- 
cational system upon which she is expending im- 
mense sums of money, and which is destined to 
unify and strengthen all the forces of her national 
life. In England and her dependencies, in other 
nations of Europe, and even in far-off Japan the 
idea of public education has taken deep root. 

In our own country, however, which, above all 
others cherishes the ideals of democracy, has the 
cause of public education received the most loyal 
support. The national government has rendered 
liberal aid by setting aside, as an endowment for 
public education from the public domain, 86,138,- 
473 acres of land, an area greater than the com- 
bined areas of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, 
Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New 
York, New Jersey, Maryland, and Delaware. 
The value of the lands and of the money which 
have been devoted by congress to educational pur- 
poses amounts, according to Commissioner Harris, 
to almost $300,000,000. 

But the appropriations of the national govern- 
ment are but a small per cent, of the expenditures 
for public schools in America. The general gov- 
ernment, aside from maintaining a bureau for 
the purpose of gathering statistics and dissemi- 



34 SOME CONTRIBUTIONS TO 

nating information upon the various phases of 
educational work, has nothing to do with the con- 
trol of public schools. The maintaining and di- 
rection of these schools are undertaken by each of 
the several states. The statistics compiled by 
the United States Commissioner of Education give 
us some idea of the seriousness with which the 
problem has been attacked by the states of the 
American Union. In 1897-8 the number of pupils 
enrolled in the public elementary and secondary 
schools in the United States was 15,030,030. In 
the instruction of these pupils nearly 500,000 
teachers were engaged, while the value of the 
property used for school purposes was not far 
from a billion dollars. To defray the necessary 
expenses of this vast work, a sum averaging 
$18.06 per pupil and equal to a tax of $-1.27 upon 
every inhabitant of the country was expended. 

But America has not rested content with pro- 
viding only elementary and secondary education 
at public expense; many of the states have 
founded universities, which are supported by pub- 
lic endowments and revenues. It is true that the 
extension of public education to include university 
training has met with determined opposition ; but 
the same arguments that have been made against 
public education in any form are the very reasons 
that have been advanced against public higher 
education. It is reasonable to conclude, there- 
fore, that these arguments which have been un- 
able to stay the resistless march of the elementary 



EDUCATIONAL PROGRESS 35 

and the secondary public school, will not be able 
to retard to any great degree the progress of 
the state university. Surely the lover of democ- 
racy can rejoice in this great contribution of the 
Nineteenth Century — state education, which, the- 
oretically at least, has the primer at one end 
and graduate work in the university at the other, 
an achievement more colossal than the building 
of the pyramids and more glorious than the con- 
quests of Alexander. 

Yet another contribution of the Nineteenth 
Century consists in the development of industrial 
and technological education. For centuries the 
so-called learned professions, medicine, law, and 
theology, monopolized the time and the thought 
of educated men. It was not believed that a 
really comprehensive education was necessary for 
those who were to engage in industrial and com- 
mercial pursuits; but the great development of 
material resources in the Nineteenth Century, 
amounting, practically, to revolution, required 
that the old wasteful and unscientific methods em- 
ployed in the production, manufacture and dis- 
tribution of commodities must be abandoned, and 
that the world's industrial affairs must be man- 
aged by men especially trained for their work. 
Hence arose the scientific and technical schools. 
It would be interesting to trace the history of 
these schools, but the limits of this paper for- 
bid. There is one thing, however, to which it 
may be well to call attention. The thoroughly 



36 SOME CONTRIBUTIONS TO 

modern technological school has two purposes, 
one of which is to afford training for special pur- 
suits, the other, which is, in fact, the more fun- 
damental and without which the former cannot 
be obtained, is to furnish in large measure such 
instruction as is necessary to a liberal education. 
The technological school of the highest type is 
not confined in its operation to the teaching of 
trades or the making of tradesmen: it is equally 
concerned in the making of men. 

In this paper I can only barely mention two 
other contributions. The first is the kinder- 
garten, the function of which is to give systematic 
training to children too young to enter the ele- 
mentary school; and the second is university ex- 
tension work, the many forms of which are de- 
signed to benefit men and women who are pre- 
vented by the force of circumstances from pur- 
suing their studies in school and college. 

In conclusion, let us inquire. What is the sig- 
nificance of all these contributions? Upon what 
principle can be explained the accomplishment of 
a task so stupendous as to involve, first, the most 
radical changes with respect to the aim in educa- 
tion ; second, the vast expansion of the culture- 
material to accomplish this aim ; third, the dis- 
covery and application of scientific method in 
instruction ; fourth, the provision for the profes- 
sional education of teachers ; fifth, the organiza- 
tion and the partial development of gigantic S3's- 
tems of public instruction at public expense ; sixth, 



EDUCATIONAL PROGRESS 37 

the increase of the number of the learned profes- 
sions by recognizing the dignity of the applied 
sciences ; and lastly, the extension of the privi- 
lege of education to the child in the kindergarten 
and the parent in his home? There can be but 
one answer — it is the spirit of real humanism, 
the spirit of social democracy, which is the dis- 
tinctive characteristic of the Nineteenth Century. 



Ill 



HERBERT SPENCER'S INDIVIDUALITY 

AS MANIFESTED IN HIS EDUCA- 

CATIONAL THINKING ^ 

The educational world is greatly indebted to 
more than one outsider for valuable criticism and 
direction. The beneficial influence of Rousseau's 
"Emile" despite its many palpable absurdities, 
cannot be easily overestimated. Montaigne, 
Bacon, and other men who were not practical 
teachers, have contributed in no small degree to 
the art, as well as the science, of teaching. Her- 
bert Spencer, also, finds a place, and a com^ 
manding place, among this class of man's bene- 
factors, for the fact that, when he was only sev- 
enteen years of age, he served as a supply- 
teacher for three months, does not justify us in 
enrolling him in the ranks of the schoolmaster. 

In this paper it is obviously impossible to dis- 
cuss many of the important questions in educa- 
tion about which Spencer has written with so 
great a vigor and persuasiveness. Your atten- 
tion is, therefore, invited to a hasty presentation 

1 A paper read in Atlanta, Georgia, February 2t, 1904, 
in a sjTnposium upon the educational theories and work of 
Plerbert Spencer, before the Department of Superintend- 
ence of the National Educational Association. 

38 



HIS EDUCATIONAL THINKING 39 

of only one topic, Spencer's individuality as mani- 
fested in his educational thinking. 

In dealing with school problems, as with those 
in other fields of thought, Herbert Spencer was 
singularly free from the influence of traditional 
opinion, and was, at the same time, little moved 
by the beliefs of his contemporaries. In his last 
work, published in 1902, is found this sentence, 
disclosing his marked individualistic type of mind : 
"Early in life it became a usual experience for me 
to stand in a minority — often a small minority, 
sometimes approaching a minority of one." 

Quick, in his "Educational Reformers," very 
properly devotes a chapter to Spencer, in whom 
are to be found the essential attributes of lead- 
ers in reform — ability, disposition, and courage 
to expose error, however old and well-beloved, and 
to champion the truth, however new and unpopu- 
lar. 

The four essays on education which Spencer 
contributed to British magazines in 1854, 1858, 
and 1859 are almost fierce in denunciation of the 
educational theories and practices of his times. 
It is no wonder that many conventional school 
men in the English-speaking world read his phil- 
ippics with mingled feelings of disgust and dis- 
may. If Spencer were right, they were wrong; 
if his teaching should triumph, theirs would be- 
come discredited. Teachers of the classics, es- 
pecially, looked upon him as the chief of the 
Philistines, and with tongue and pen sought to 



40 SPENCER'S INDIVIDUALITY IN 

punish him for what they called his pedagogic 
presumption and wickedness. It is believed (and 
I share the opinion) that he erred greatly in his 
estimate of the value of Latin and Greek, that he 
did not accord to the languages and literatures 
of the ancient Greeks and Romans the high cul- 
ture-value they actually possess. It is thought, 
furthermore, by some eminent educators, our 
own United States Commissioner of Education 
among the number, that Spencer's conception of 
the educational value of the fine arts, including 
literature, the noblest of them all, is not to be 
justified upon grounds either a priori or a pos- 
teriori. Still other objections are urged against 
his conclusions with respect to what knowledge 
should find a place in the instruction of children 
and youth; but, in spite of the floods of criticism 
that have swept over his essay treating of what 
knowledge is of most worth, the unprejudiced 
student of educational history will not fail to 
honor him for valiant championship of the cause 
of natural science. It is because of the work of 
Spencer, Huxley, Agassiz, Eliot and other great 
leaders in education, that the studies pertaining 
to the natural world have, at length, gained ad- 
mission to the charmed circle of the liberal arts. 
Even in our own day are to be found educated 
men who yet regard these studies with indiffer- 
ence or distrust ; but a half-century ago Spencer 
was not far from speaking the literal truth when 
he said : 



HIS EDUCATIONAL THINKING 41 

"Had there been no teaching but such as is given 
in our public schools^ England would now be what 
it was in feudal times. That increasing acquaint- 
ance with the laws of phenomena which has through 
successive ages enabled us to subjugate Nature to 
our needs, and in these days gives the common 
laborer comforts which a few centuries ago kings 
could not purchase, is scarcely in any degree owed 
to the appointed means of instructing our youth. 
The vital knowledge — that by which we have grown 
as a nation to what we are, and which now underlies 
our whole existence — is a knowledge that has got it- 
self taught in nooks and corners while the ordained 
agencies for teaching have been mumbling little else 
but dead formulas." 

Again, in the closing paragraph of the essay 
in which science is lauded for both its disciplinary 
and its practical value, he was not wholly wrong, 
though, perhaps, not altogether just to the tra- 
ditional curriculum. That paragraph reads as 
follows : 

"We must say that in the family of knowledges, 
Science is the household drudge, who, in obscurity, 
hides unrecognized perfections. To her has been 
committed all the work; by her skill, intelligence, and 
devotion have all the conveniences and gratifications 
been obtained; and, while ceaselessly occupied min- 
istering to the rest, she has been kept in the back- 
ground, that her haughty sisters might flaunt their 
fripperies in the eyes of the world. The parallel 
holds yet further. For we are fast coming to the 



42 SPENCER'S INDIVIDUALITY IN 

denouement, when the positions will be changed; and, 
while these haughty sisters sink into merited neglect, 
science, proclaimed as highest alike in worth and 
beauty, will reign supreme," 

The denouement has been reached, but with a 
different result from that prophesied by Spencer 
in 1859, for neither science nor the classics nor 
mathematics nor philosophy nor any other sub- 
ject is now allowed to exercise dominion over her 
sister-subjects or even to display aristocratic airs 
in their presence. Thanks to the characteristic 
spirit of this age, there has been firmly estab- 
lished not only democracy among men, but also 
democracy among studies, including even the sci- 
ence and art of education. 

From what has just been said, one would con- 
clude that, in his plea for the teaching of sci- 
ence, Spencer refers to natural science alone. 
With him, however, science is a much more com- 
prehensive term, including the new subjects (the 
natural sciences) and, also, the old subjects, but 
the old subjects so transformed by rational think- 
ing as to render them practically new. For his- 
tory, language, and other human-nature subjects 
as he found them, he had no word of commenda- 
tion whatever, strenuously insisting that, only 
through the understanding of the science of these 
subjects, can results in anywise desirable be at- 
tained. What he means by knowing the science 
of a subject he expresses in many different 



HIS EDUCATIONAL THINKING 43 

phrases, some of which are here given: "Knowl- 
edge of realities," "knowledge of constitution of 
things," "knowledge of the content of things, not 
of mere symbols," "organized knowledge," "ra- 
tional knowledge," "knowledge of general truths," 
"knowledge of fundamental principles, or laws" — 
with all of which ideas the modern conception of 
education is in hearty accord. He nowhere bet- 
ter sets forth his view concerning the dominating 
spirit of science than in this description of the 
scientific man: 

"While towards the traditions and authorities of 
men its attitude [the attitude of science] may be 
proud, before the impenetrable veil which hides the 
Absolute its attitude is humble — a true pride and a 
true humility. Only the sincere man of science (and 
by this title we do not mean the mere calculator of 
distances, or analyzer of compounds, or labeler of 
species; but him who through lower truths seeks 
higher, and eventually the highest) — only the genu- 
ine man of science, we say, can truly know how ut- 
terly beyond, not only human knowledge, but human 
conception, is the Universal Power of which Nature, 
and Life, and Thought are manifestations." 

Herbert Spencer, not content with attacking 
the traditional curriculum, pleads vigorously for 
reform in the theory and practice of the several 
phases of education. In place of ignorant, if 
not wicked, neglect of training of the body, he 
prays for scientific physical education ; in place 



44 SPENCER'S INDIVIDUALITY IN 

of arbitrary and artificial means of moral de- 
velopment, he asks that rational and natural 
plans be adopted; and, in place of the old-time 
principles of authority and pain in educating the 
intellect, he advocates with convincing eloquence 
the doctrines of self-activity and interest. In 
these several departments of education he called 
upon men everywhere to repent, and he may not 
improperly be called the educational John the 
Baptist of the Nineteenth Century. 

But some school superintendent or college pro- 
fessor who finds, for reasons familiar to us all, 
his tenure of office more or less precarious, may 
retort that it is very easy for a great layman 
like Spencer to play reformer ; that the school- 
master, on the other hand, must needs be a more 
timorous soul ; that he cannot afford to break 
with his environment, especially with that part 
of it which includes the board giving him employ- 
ment, for there is danger that another locality 
will most probably be added to the itinerary of 
his professional life. It is not to be disputed that 
the teacher has long been extremely diplomatic, 
not to say lacking in nerve, when brought face- 
to-face with progressive measures. It is none the 
less his business to cultivate that open-mindcd- 
ness to truth and that courage of conviction char- 
acteristic of Spencer, for personal independence 
is an unmistakable attribute of manhood, and the 
first great qualification of the teacher is that he 
be a man. Of course, in manifesting his academic 



HIS EDUCATIONAL THINKING 45 

freedom and in laboring for reform, it is, by no 
means, necessary that one abandon the sense of 
the righteous opportunist or the speech and the 
behavior of the well-bred gentleman. 

Again, it may be suggested that Spencer, hav- 
ing neither wife nor children, could well afford to 
stand on the firing line of educational reform. 
Death under such circumstances would not in- 
volve unoffending victims. In reply to this view 
it may be said that, if a man love houses and 
lands, wife and children, more than he loves truth, 
he is not made of the sterner stuff the reformer 
needs. Furthermore, to him who falters in the 
discharge of professional duty, these words of 
the Psalmist bring consolation and courage: "I 
have been young and now am old; yet have I not 
seen the righteous forsaken nor his seed begging 
bread." It is well also to remember that courage 
is born of doing things, and that the world is 
now looking, as never before in the history of 
the race, for men able and willing to think their 
own thoughts, and then to act upon their own 
responsibility. 

Time is left to call attention in briefest word 
only to the fact that Spencer's individualistic 
spirit was so intense as to prevent him from tol- 
erating or even seeing the natural trend toward 
social unity. When but twenty-two years of age, 
he published in the Nonconformist an article em- 
phatically condemning the education of the peo- 
ple as a function of government. In "Facts and 



46 SPENCER'S INDIVIDUALITY IN 

Comments," published only a year before his 
death, he reaffirms his belief that state education 
is both unjust and unwise. This view is sadly out 
of harmony with that of the modern pedagogue, 
philosopher, and statesman. If there is any one 
sign of our times more significant than any other, 
it is that the state, with ever-increasing activity, 
is to provide for all the people genuine education, 
which involves far more than intellectual train- 
ing (a fact not taken into account by Spencer), 
and which has for its supreme purpose the en- 
richment of institutional life through the gener- 
ous development of the free, self-active spirit of 
the individual. In ancient Sparta man belonged, 
body and soul, to the state, there being two in- 
evitable results — the atrophy of the spontaneity 
of the individual and, in consequence, the final 
overthrow of the state itself. In the eighteenth 
century individualistic sanctions became sovereign, 
and the individual, as well as the state, was com- 
pelled to endure the Reign of Terror. The mod- 
ern state, realizing the necessity of both indi- 
vidual strength and social solidarity, seeks, 
through proper educational means, to harmonize 
these two forces, which are, at times, apparently 
antagonistic, but which, in reality, are mutually 
helpful. It is strange, indeed, that so plain a 
lesson in history did not reveal itself to the great 
mind that gave to the world the term, Evolution. 
The fundamental educational principle, over-em-" 
phasized by Spencer, that the sanctity of the in- 



HIS EDUCATIONAL THINKING 47 

dividual human being should be kept inviolate, 
needs to be supplemented by a second great prin- 
ciple, that of social service, which is destructive 
of individualism but not of individuality — a prin- 
ciple which conditions the material and the spir- 
itual progress of humanity. 



IV 



THE DETERMINING FACTORS OF THE 

CURRICULUM OF THE SECONDARY 

SCHOOL 1 

Since the days of ancient Greece the curriculum 
of the secondary school has undergone many 
changes. As educational ideals have been modi- 
fied, at times even to the point of revolution, so 
courses of study have been as often recast. One 
of the most encouraging truths which is revealed 
by even a dilettantish study of the history of edu- 
cation is that a compulsory curriculum for all suc- 
ceeding generations of men is not only undesira- 
ble, but also positively impossible. This paper, 
therefore, without attempting to set up a curri- 
culum to be worshiped by the schoolmasters of the 
present and future, will be restricted to the dis- 
cussion of general principles which should guide 
intelligent authorities in mapping out the work 
of the secondary school. These principles will 
be briefly discussed under two heads, viz.: (1) 
Civilization as a great determining factor; and 
(2) the individual student to be educated as the 
other. 

1 A paper read in Waco, Texas, December 27, 1901, be- 
fore the Texas State Teachers' Association. Printed in the 
School Review of October, 1902, and included in this vol- 
ume by permission of the publishers. 

48 



THE SECONDARY SCHOOL 49 

I. CIVILIZATION AS A DETERMINING FACTOR 

The school is not an artificial institution ex- 
isting for and by itself. It finds its reason-to-be 
in the needs of civilized life, and its chief glory 
in ministering to those needs. Man is pre- 
eminent in the animal kingdom because he is an 
institution-building animal, his highest wisdom 
being displayed when he perfects the school, by 
which insight is attained into other forms of in- 
stitutional life, and by which, as a result of this 
insight, civilization is strengthened and enriched. 
If the doctrine be accepted that the school is 
maintained for the sake of civilization, it follows 
that the arbitrary, artificial curriculum, born of 
pedantry, or of zeal not according to knowledge, 
or of anything else tending to divorce the school 
from the world and its work, is not to be tolerated. 
The one great question, the correct answer to 
which will determine the culture-material seeking 
recognition in the secondary school is : Does it 
have such characteristics as give it organic re- 
lationship with the development of man for in- 
telligent and effective service in and for civiliza- 
tion? 

It would not be difficult to frame a curriculum 
which would conduce more or less to the training 
of the so-called faculties of the mind, and which 
would, nevertheless, have little, if any, value so 
far as the demands of civilized life are concerned. 
As illustrations of this truth, one easily calls to 



60 THE CURRICULUM OF 

mind the folly of scholasticism and of all forms 
of ascetic education. The important fact to be 
kept steadily in mind, is that it is the civilization 
of the present (emphasis being placed, of course, 
upon its higher elements which are ever looking 
forward to the evolution of the future civilization 
from that of the present), which is to exercise de- 
termining power with respect to the studies to 
be assigned to the secondary school. The em- 
peror of Germany, in his opening address at the 
famous school conference in 1890, manifested at 
least partial comprehension of the importance of 
adjusting school programs to modern needs, as 
the following extract from that address gives evi- 
dence: 

"The main trouble lies in the fact that since 1870 
the philologists have sat in their Gymnasien as heati 
possidentes, laying main stress upon the subject- 
matter, upon the learning and the knowing, but not 
upon the formation of character and upon the needs 
of life. Less emphasis is being placed upon practice 
[/connen] than theory [^•ewnen], a fact that can 
easily be verified by looking at the requirements for 
examinations. Their underlying principle is that the 
pupil must, first of all, know as many things as pos- 
sible. Whether this knowledge fits for life or not, is 
immaterial. If anyone enters into a discussion with 
these gentlemen on this point, and attempts to show 
them that a young man ouglit to be prepared, to some 
extent at least, for life and its manifold problems, 
they will tell him that such is not the function of the 



THE SECONDARY SCHOOL 51 

school, its principal aim being the discipline or gym- 
nastic of the mind, and that, if tliis gymnastic were 
properly conducted, the young man would be capable 
of doing all that is necessary in life. I am of the 
opinion that we can no longer be guided by this doc- 
trine. 

"To return to schools in general and to the Gym- 
nasium in particular — I will say that I am not ig- 
norant of the fact that in many circles I am looked 
upon as a fanatical opponent of the Gymnasium, and 
that I have therefore often been played as a trump- 
card in favor of other schools. Gentlemen, this is 
a misapprehension. Whoever has been a pupil of a 
Gymnasium liimself, and has looked behind the 
scenes, knows where the wrong lies. First of all, a 
national basis is wanting. The foundation of our 
Gymnasium must be German. It is our duty to edu- 
cate men to become young Germans, and not young 
Greeks or Romans. We must relinquish the basis 
which has been the rule for centuries, the old monas- 
tic education of the middle ages, when Latin and a 
little Greek [einhisschen Griechisch^ were most im- 
portant. These are no longer our standard; we must 
make German the basis, and German composition 
must be made the center around which everything else 
revolves." ^ 

I have intimated that the German emperor's 
insight into the matter at issue was only partial. 
His idea that the schools of the German nation 
are to cultivate Germans, should it have free and 
unlimited course would forever arrest the develop- 
i Educational Review, "Volume 1, pp. 202f-3. 



52 THE CURRICULUM OF 

ment of Germany at the ci\ac grade of culture, 
making it then impossible for her to arrive at the 
higher stage of human culture, which is the domi- 
nant idea in modern civilization. The doctrine 
for which this paper contends is, not that the 
school should make only Germans, or Americans, 
or Englishmen, but that the all-controlling pur- 
pose of the schools of every nation should be to 
make men who, by no means delinquent with re- 
spect to civic duties, have an abiding sense of 
their obligations to humanity. The lives of such 
men are in harmony with the spirit and the letter 
of the declaration of the Roman emperor, "As 
Antonine, my country is Rome; as a man, the 
world." 

It is this doctrine of real humanism in which 
Huxley believed, his faith being nowhere more 
clearly expressed than in this paragraph, to be 
found in his address delivered in 1868 at the South 
London Working Men's College: 

"The pohticians tell us that you must educate the 
masses because they are going to be masters. The 
clergy join in the cry for education, for they affirm 
that the people are drifting away from church and 
chapel into the broadest infidelity. The manufactur- 
ers and the capitalists swell the chorus lustily. They 
declare that ignorance makes bad workmen, that 
England will soon be unable to turn out cotton goods 
or steam engines cheaper than other people; and then 
Ichabod ! Ichabod ! the glory will be departed from 
us. A few voices are lifted up in favor of the doc- 



THE SECONDARY SCHOOL 53 

trine that the masses should be educated because they 
are men and women with unlimited capacities for 
being, doing, and suffering, and that it is as true now 
as it ever was that the people perish for lack of 
knowledge." ^ 

Huxley was too broad to be only a Briton. He 
understood that the common element in humanity, 
reason, is that which makes human culture pos- 
sible, and that, in proportion as this element, 
rather than the accidental circumstance of nativ- 
ity or race or power or wealth, is honored in a 
nation, is the true life of the nation advanced and 
are the higher interests of humanity subserved. 
One could not, for example, doubt that, if both the 
British and the Boers had been guided by the 
dictates of reason, the war in South Africa would 
have been impossible; and that, if Spain, in her 
conduct toward the Cubans, had been reasonable, 
she would not have lost her possessions in the 
Western World. 

The contention that the curriculum of the sec- 
ondary school should be fashioned according to 
the ideals of modern life, implies that past sys- 
tems of education in their totality are to be looked 
upon with suspicion, for they prevailed in times 
far different from our own, and they were main- 
tained to suit views of life in many particulars 
directly at variance with the notions we moderns 
cherish. It is not contended, however, that everj- 

3 Huxley's "Science and Education Essays," p. 77. 



64 THE CURRICULUM OF 

thing in the past is to be ignored, simply because 
it is in the past. One can conceive of no stronger 
evidence of educational insanity than failure to 
recognize that the present is the result of evolu- 
tion from the past, and that existing ideals are 
but the union of past ideals which, by reason of 
their permanent value, have survived. 

Taking it for granted that no one will question 
the claim of modern civilization to be a determin- 
ing factor in the formation of the curriculum of 
the modern secondary school, it may be well to re- 
view the more important particular lines of cul- 
ture this factor determines. 

In the first place, training in language is of 
primary importance. As Aristotle pointed out 
centuries ago, language, constituting as it does 
a characteristic difference between man and brute, 
makes possible bonds of social union founded upon 
the needs other than those of mere nature, and 
consequently furnishes an indispensable basis for 
human culture. It is through the real study of 
language that insight is to be gained into the 
nature of thought, and it is, therefore, language- 
study that forms an important part of the great 
thought-group of studies in the world of learning. 
Any instruction in language which regards the 
mere forms of thought as of transcendent impor- 
tance, and which disregards the real thought it- 
self, tends to cultivate a habit largely prevalent 
even in our own day, the habit of talking volubly 
without actually saying anything. 



THE SECONDARY SCHOOL 55 

The study of language, furthermore, furnishes 
the means whereby the pupil may become pos- 
sessed of that great inheritance to which he is 
entitled, and which embraces the greatest of all 
the arts, literature. There is no surer evidence 
of the highly civilized man than that he is a lover 
and a reader of the best books, those books which 
reveal with transcendent beauty and power the 
struggles of the human spirit toward the realiza- 
tion of its highest ideals. If the educational sys- 
tem of the old Greeks has in it any lesson for the 
schoolmaster of to-day, it is this : The nation 
which cultivates assiduously in the minds of the 
young the knowledge and appreciation of great 
classics is engaged in a work of the highest prac- 
tical importance, for it is doing that which vitally 
affects its own moral and spiritual welfare, and 
it is as true with respect to nations as to indi- 
viduals that only moral and spiritual excellence 
can endure — a truth which may be overlooked in 
these days of territorial expansion, of billion- 
dollar industrial investments, and of stupendous 
material development in every direction. 

The subject of language-study may be looked 
at from another standpoint. In the elementary 
school the pupil learns in an empirical and frag- 
mentary way something of his own language ; in 
the secondary school he should begin the reflective 
study of the vernacular in order that he may 
eventually gain such mastery of it as will insure 
him the ability to use it with ease, precision, and 



66 THE CURRICULUM OF 

power. The belief, widespread for many centu- 
ries, that the youth could, without sustained and 
systematic effort, acquire this ability, has not un- 
til our own day manifested signs of obsolescence. 
Leaders of educational thought are now, how- 
ever, agreed that the "acquisition of a competent 
knowledge of English is not an easy, but a labo- 
rious undertaking, for the average youth — not 
a matter of entertaining reading, but of serious 
study; that indeed there is no subject in which 
skilled and systematic instruction is of greater 
value." ^ With respect to paying serious atten- 
tion to the vernacular, the ancient Greeks have 
given the world another valuable lesson, for their 
linguistic training was acquired exclusively 
through the medium of their own tongue, other 
languages being absolutely proscribed. 

The folly of attempting to substitute a foreign 
language for the vernacular in the training of 
the young is nowhere illustrated better than in 
the utter failure of the famous schoolmaster, 
Sturm, in his experiment, carried on for a long 
series of years in Strassburg. With a determi- 
nation which would brook no opposition, he en- 
deavored to restore the long-lost skill in the use 
of the two great languages of the Greeks and 
Romans. He, accordingly, prohibited both teach- 
ers and pupils from conversation in German. 
Even games were not permissible without the con- 
dition that the speech employed therein be con- 

4 Eliot, "Educational Reform," pp. 99-100. 



THE SECONDARY SCHOOL 57 

fined to Latin. His aim, which was to denational- 
ize the young Germans, was not forgotten by him 
for a moment. His lengthy and detailed direc- 
tions to the teachers of the several grades in every 
instance had direct bearing upon the accomplish- 
ment of his great purpose, which was to see the 
men of his own age writing, haranguing, and 
speaking Greek and Latin with power equal to 
that which flourished in the noblest days of 
Athens and Rome. After more than forty years 
spent in earnest endeavor to accomplish his cher- 
ished ideal, he himself confessed his total failure ; 
but, strange to say, he ascribed the cause of fail- 
ure to the teachers and himself, and not to the 
fact that Latin was not the native tongue of the 
boys he had been training. Nevertheless, even 
Sturm could not help realizing that eloquence is 
by no means confined to Latin, for he observed 
that Italians, Spaniards, Frenchmen and Ger- 
mans could be eloquent in their own tongues. 
Concerning Luther, he said : 

"Had there been no Reformation, had the sermons 
of Luther never appeared, and had he written noth- 
ing at all save his translation of the Bible, this alone 
would have insured him an immortality of fame. 
For, if we compare with this German translation 
either the Greek, the Latin, or any other, we shall 
find that they are all far behind it both in perspicu- 
ity, purity, choice of expression, and resemblance to 
the Hebrew original. I believe that, as no painter 
has ever been able to surpass Apelles, so no scholar 



68 THE CURRICULUM OF 

will ever be able to produce a translation of the 
Bible that shall excel Luther's." * 

But, because the work of the world demands 
that each worker be familiar with his own lan- 
guage, and be able to levy great contributions 
upon it, it is by no means certain that the modern 
secondary school should be patterned after that of 
ancient Greece by forbidding the study of a foreign 
language. The Committee on College Entrance 
Requirements, in its report made to the Na- 
tional Education Association in 1899, is distinctly 
favorable to the study of foreign language. It 
is not necessary, I take it, to enter into an ex- 
tended argument to show the justice of this posi- 
tion. The value of the literatures of Greece and 
Rome can be questioned by no scholar. How 
these literatures are inextricably interwoven with 
the modern literatures is evident upon the most 
superficial examination. It is, therefore, easy to 
conclude that the study of ancient literature will 
directly, as well as indirectly, aid one in the ap- 
preciation of modern. Furthermore, the lin- 
guistic training to be derived from the study of 
a foreign language, ancient or modern, is of posi- 
tive value with respect to the vernacular. There 
is no better training in English than that which 
requires a translation from a foreign tongue into 
the idiom of our vernacular. The opinion is here 
advanced that by high-school students that will 

B Barnard's "German Teachers and Educators," p. 222, 



THE SECONDARY SCHOOL 59 

not go to college, as well as by those that will 
have the privilege of instruction in higher in- 
stitutions, benefit of the highest order is to be 
derived from three or four years' study of at 
least one foreign language. 

Another human-nature study which is demanded 
by modern times is that of history. The value 
of this subject for guidance and also for discipline 
has in recent years been acknowledged. History 
is not concerned so much with names and dates 
and isolated facts as it is with human motives 
connected therewith. It is not so much interested 
in any given set of details as it is with the prin- 
ciples by which those concrete data are bound to- 
gether in a series of causes and results. The 
study of history should, therefore, afford the stu- 
dent a basis for the interpretation of modern life. 
It is believed that the stage of adolescence, which 
is the high-school stage, is a particularly oppor- 
tune time for the study of that subject which 
deals with the significance of human action, and 
which gives to the youth entering upon the transi- 
tion stage just preceding manhood conceptions of 
many-sided human nature. In the elementary 
school the child is taught through stories and 
narratives and biographies many things which 
will be of service in his future historical study; 
but it must be borne in mind that this elementary 
work is scarcely to be considered as real history. 
The world needs men that are students of rela- 
tions, that can gather facts, classify them, and in- 



60 THE CURRICULUM OF 

terpret them, and that can understand processes 
of transformation of idea into reality. Cer- 
tainly, there is no greater demand made upon 
the citizen of a modern state than to be able to 
do just such thinking as is required in anything 
like an adequate study of history. 

It is not necessary to discuss at length other 
secondary-school subjects determined by modern 
civilization ; but they cannot be dismissed without 
a word. The intricate and almost infinite appli- 
cation of mathematics to the industrial arts is 
sufficient justification for its place in the program 
of the secondary school. Mathematics is the tool 
by which man has conquered nature, and it must 
forever remain an effective instrument for min- 
istering to man's comfort and convenience. Its 
disciplinary value has been greatly overrated, be- 
cause it has been believed to extend to fields of 
discipline to which, by reason of its nature and 
limitations, it must forever be foreign ; but its 
value for the training of observation and reason- 
ing with respect to the phenomena of its own field, 
is incalculable and indispensable, and civilization 
is in no whimsical mood when she demands that the 
school afford excellent opportunity for the acquire- 
ment of mathematical knowledge and discipline. 

The great natural-science realm of learning 
has likewise received the unmistakable approval 
of modern civilization. The time was when it was 
considered unworthy and even impious to study 
the phenomena of nature. Within the last cen- 



THE SECONDARY SCHOOL 61 

lury, however, through the marvelous contribu- 
tions of science, she has demonstrated her worth 
as a necessary factor in human life. It may be 
truly asserted that more and greater changes 
have been wrought by science upon our material 
life within the last few years than have been 
wrought in any thousand years before the nine- 
teenth century. It may be said, furthermore, 
that the method of science, as well as its progress, 
has no small effect upon the spiritual side of man, 
for its method is the only true method to be em- 
ployed in the study of any problem, endeavoring, 
as it does, to cultivate an open attitude of mind, 
the love of truth, the willingness to adopt it, 
and the courage to stand for it, when once 
adopted. If the school is to be kept in touch 
with real life, it cannot afford to neglect this 
great group of subjects, which is admirably 
adapted to give the youth such training as will 
enable him to feel at home in this world, and to 
face it, at least, without fear. 

Again, the needs of modern life make large 
drafts upon the physical forces of man. In no 
former age of the world have health and strength 
and endurance been so desirable and so necessary. 
That the obligations to meet these demands are 
scarcely acknowledged by the makers of school 
programs, is no evidence that the obligation does 
not exist. It has been demonstrated beyond all 
doubt, and over and over again, that development 
of mind without training of the body is a useless, 



6^ THE CURRICULUM OF 

not to say a wicked, system of education, and yet 
adequate provision for physical training is to be 
found in comparatively few secondary schools in 
America. Here is an opportunity for a reform 
to be led by an educational crusader worthy to 
rank with Pestalozzi and Horace Mann. 

Let me briefly recapitulate the discussion up 
to this point: (1) Civilization is a determin- 
ing factor of the curriculum of the secondary 
school. (2) The civilization that is a deter- 
mining factor is modern civilization. (3) Mod- 
ern civilization requires that the secondary school 
curriculum provide (a) for physical training; 
(6) for language, including the vernacular and 
foreign tongues ; (c) for representatives of other 
great groups of subjects pertaining to human 
nature; and (d) for yet other groups of studies 
relating to the natural world.^ 

To summarize the whole matter, modern civili- 
zation requires that the many-sided phases of 
modern life which are concerned with problems 
pertaining to the external and internal worlds, 
be considered as the objective basis of the cur- 
riculum, and that due regard be paid to each of 
these several phases. To adopt a fragmentary 
view by over-emphasizing a study adapted to one 
phase only, is the result of distorted vision, and 
will, in the end, defeat its own purpose. All 
forms of human activity are sacred, and all sub- 

6 Among these groups is, of course, the industrial group 
— manual training, domestic science, agriculture, etc. 



THE SECONDARY SCHOOL 63 

jects having for their ultimate purpose the de- 
velopment of these several activities are both im- 
portant and honorable. 

But, while it is demanded that representatives 
of all the great groups of learning be found in 
the school curriculum, our civilization, more than 
any other the world has ever known, believes in 
the wisdom of division of labor, and, consequently 
does not ask that the curriculum be the same for 
all pupils, regardless of qualifications and regard- 
less of individual characteristics and interests. 
This statement leads to the discussion of the 
second determining factor of the curriculum of 
the secondary school. 

II. THE INDIVIDUAL AS A DETERMINING 
FACTOR 

By a certain class of present-day educators 
who are guilty of the folly of setting up a theory 
and then compelling facts to conform thereto, it is 
argued that the wisdom and experience of school- 
masters should, at least by this time, have been 
able to evolve a uniform course of study well 
suited to all youths aspiring to a liberal educa- 
tion. The human mind is ever searching for uni- 
f^'ing principles, and it is no wonder that it has 
been a favorite doctrine of teachers that there 
is one plan of education, in comparison with which 
other schemes are decidedly inferior. For years 
in the olden time the trivium, consisting of gram- 
mar, rhetoric, and dialectics, was considered the 



64 THE CURRICULUM OF 

sacred trinity of the secondary school; and it 
is a well-known fact that since the curriculum of 
the Renaissance was enthroned in the pedagogic 
heart, many of the greatest scholars and great- 
est teachers have honestly believed that in Latin, 
Greek, and mathematics is to be found another 
sacred trinity, and that they are the only dis-^ 
ciplinary studies par excellence. No one can ex- 
aggerate the blessings to the human race follow- 
ing the discovery of the languages and literature 
of Greece and Rome. For the revival of hu- 
manism, whose chief instruments were the classics, 
the modern world cannot have too great rever- 
ence; of the intrinsic values of Latin and Greek 
and mathematics as means of culture to-day, it 
would be difficult to form too high an estimate. 
But, in order to accord high honor to these three 
subjects, it is not necessary to declare that they 
shall be studied by all people desirous of obtain- 
ing a thorough education. To prescribe them 
for all students simply because of their discipli- 
nary value is assuming that all minds are pat- 
terned after a common mold and are, therefore, 
responsive to the same forms of discipline. The 
belief that there is a uniform boy is a myth, and 
any system of education founded upon that myth 
is irrational. 

It is just at this point that the modern graded 
school system is most vulnerable. The greatest 
weakness of that system, and the one which in re- 
cent years has been most clearly pointed out, 



THE SECONDARY SCHOOL 65 

is the policy which makes the idea of uniformity 
dominant, the policy which is founded upon the 
delusion which contends that all children are born 
with equal and like powers of mind, and that 
the same treatment of these powers in different 
individuals will produce the same results. Now, 
upon even slight observation and reflection, every 
one reaches the conclusion that children are not 
born equal as to mental power any more than 
they come into this world equal with respect to 
physical being. Everyone knows that even chil- 
dren found in the same family manifest the great- 
est differences as to mental characteristics and 
adaptations. Any institution, therefore, which 
by uniform treatment seeks to destroy the person- 
ality of the individual, is pursuing a policy which 
prevents both the individual and society from 
enjoying the development of his peculiar talents 
to the highest degree. 

In the selection of culture-material for the ele- 
mentary school, it is not so necessary to regard 
the characteristic differences of children, because 
the elementary course of study is primarily in- 
tended to place the child in possession of the 
school arts, which he will afterward use regard' 
less of the branches of learning his special pow- 
ers and interests may lead him to undertake. 
This view of the elementary school is itself ques- 
tioned by some ; but the student in the secondary 
school has certainly reached the age when he be- 
gins to disclose his individual interests, and school 



66 THE CURRICULUM OF 

authorities can perform no greater service to liim 
and to the world than to furnish him abundant 
opportunity to follow the lead of his special apti- 
tudes. If the secondary school were so conducted 
as to convince parents that it furnishes every 
youth what is best for himself, and if the youth 
were likewise possessed of the same idea, we would 
never again be called upon to listen to a series of 
answers to the question, Why are so few boys to 
be found in the higher grades of the public 
schools ? 

That colleges and universities are recognizing 
the wisdom of consulting the needs of the indi- 
vidual is evidenced by the fact that their courses 
of study are largely optional. In our own coun- 
try there is not a reputable institution of higher 
learning in which the old four-year curriculum, 
prescribed for all students, obtains. In Germany 
for many years absolutely free election of univer- 
sity courses has prevailed. The American uni- 
versities have further shown their disregard of 
the idea of uniformity by allowing different stud- 
ies to be presented for entrance. The president 
of the oldest university in this country, in his 
annual report of 1896-7, thus expressed the view 
which has year by year been gaining in popular- 
ity among thoughtful students of education: 

"The future attitude of Harvard is likely to be, 
not continued insistence upon certain school studies 
as essential preparation for college, but insistence 



THE SECONDARY SCHOOL 6T 

that the gate to university education should not be 
closed on the candidate in consequence of his omis- 
sion at school of any particular studies, provided 
that his school course has been so composed as to af- 
ford him a sound training of some sort. 
Harvard University has long represented the princi- 
ple of election of college studies, and has found noth- 
ing but advantage in the application of that princi- 
ple. It is natural that the college should seek to 
further the adoption of the same principle in sec- 
ondary schools and in requirements for admission to 
college." 

The University of Texas is in harmony with 
the modern view on this subject, for the only ab- 
solute requirements for entrance are English and 
elementary mathematics (algebra and plane 
geometry). The history requirement may be ab- 
solved in four different ways — by presenting gen- 
eral history or American history or English his- 
tory or by a combination of English and Ameri- 
can history. The other entrance requirements 
are elective. Of foreign languages one or more 
may be selected from the group composed of 
Latin, Greek, French, German, and Spanish, and 
the privilege of election is extended to the nat- 
ural sciences, physiology and hygiene, physical 
geography, botany, physics, and chemistry.'^ 

7 In 1910 these subjects also are included: Civics, manual 
training, solid geometry, and trigonometry, bookkeeping, 
domestic science, and agriculture. Advanced entrance re- 
quirements obtain, furthermore, with respect to English, 
foreign language, and the natural sciences. 



68 THE CURRICULUM OF 

The chief objection urged against any attempt 
to consult the special preference and capacity of 
the high-school pupil is the contention that the 
policy of election, founded, as it is, upon the doc- 
trine of interest, will lead the pupil to avoid the 
performance of any task not particularly agree- 
able to himself. Now, no one questions the great 
desirability of training the student to habits of 
industry. Educational thinkers of every faith 
and order unite in the belief that all the functions 
of the school have ultimately but one purpose — 
to add to the number of the world's patient, con- 
tinuous, effective workers; but the objection just 
now mentioned does not correctly represent the 
results of the application of the principle of elec- 
tion. The charge itself is open to criticism, for 
it is founded upon a misconception of the doc- 
trine it attacks. The great value derived from 
the performance of a disagreeable task arises, 
not from the fact that the task is disagreeable, 
but because it is organically related with a de- 
sirable object. The adult whose life is one round 
of disagreeable acts, having no connection with 
agreeable results, is not living the life a human 
being ought to live, but is dragging out a mis- 
erable existence, from which all joy and hope are 
eliminated, and compared with which such slavery 
as once existed in the South is a paradise. The 
truth is, that even the ascetic of old daily perse- 
cuted his body, not because he rejoiced in suffer- 
ing per SBy but because he gloried in ordering his 



THE SECONDARY SCHOOL 69 

life in such a way as he believed would eventually 
place his feet upon the spiritual mountain-tops, 
and give him visions of glory for which his soul 
had long been yearning. 

Again, the etymology of the word "interest" 
(inter and est) discloses its educational signifi- 
cance. Any study becomes full of interest in the 
pedagogic sense when the student rightly con- 
siders it vitally connected with the process of his 
own self-realization. If this vital connection be 
not clearly perceived by him, or at least strongly 
believed by him to exist, the fundamental motive 
to strong and persistent effort is lost. Seeing 
no justification for the burdens laid upon him in 
prosecuting the study, he refuses to bear them al- 
together or he expends his energies in devising 
ways and means to bear as few of them as pos- 
sible. The compulsory pursuit of any distaste- 
ful study thus leads the pupil to be satisfied with 
only partial scholastic success, and leaves with 
him no stimulus to prosecute that subject in its 
higher aspects. At the earliest opportunity he 
will not only refuse to press forward to complete 
mastery ; but, in conformity with a well-known 
law of the mind, he will also proceed to divest 
himself, as nearly as may be, of what little knowl- 
edge or discipline he may have suffered himself 
to acquire. This psychological principle is well 
expressed by Vergil, when he puts into the mouth 
of ^neas the words, which, when translated some- 
what freely read as follows : "The mind shudders 



70 THE SECONDARY SCHOOL 

to remember grief, and, consequently, runs away 
from it." ^ 

To what extent the adaptation of the curri- 
culum to the individual student should be carried, 
is a problem to which many solutions may be of- 
fered; but the doctrine which this paper seeks to 
emphasize is that, no matter what answer be given 
to the question concerning the degree of election 
in the secondary school, some form of election, by 
the student, by his parents, by his teachers, or 
by them all acting conjointly, is indispensable if 
his own capacity and special talents are to be con- 
sidered and developed. 

The two fundamental doctrines which have been 
treated in this paper, constitute an indestructible 
foundation for the curriculum of the secondary 
school. Local conditions, and others not so lo- 
cal, now prevent the adequate application of these 
doctrines ; but there is abundant evidence to jus- 
tify the belief that the future has in store a day 
when the secondary school will discharge every 
reasonable obligation to the individual pupil and 
to the civilization of which his life is to be a com- 
ponent part. To help speed the coming of that 
day is the pleasure, as it is the duty, of every 
lover of learning and every lover of man, 

8 Vergil's "Aeneid," Book II, 1. 12. 



THE UNIFICATION OF COLLEGE 
DEGREES' 

At the last meeting of this association a 
speaker declared that "for a long time the B.A. 
degree has stood for all that is best in culture 
and education." At this same meeting President 
Charles W. Dabney, of the University of Ten- 
nessee, recommended that "all academic degrees 
except the B.A. and, possibly the B.S., be abol- 
ished." He has not the shadow of a doubt that 
the B.A. degree represents liberal culture, but his 
qualification of "possibly" with respect to the B.S. 
degree may be taken as evidence that he does not 
consider the two degrees as occupying the same 
plane. In an address, delivered by President 
Eliot, of Harvard, before the members of Johns 
Hopkins University in February 1884, the B.A. 
degree was said to be "the customary evidence of 
a liberal education." Dr. Hinsdale, of the Uni- 
versity of Michigan, referring to this matter 
some years ago, thus stated a well-known fact: 
"But it is England and her educational depend- 

1 A paper read in Columbia, S. C November 3, 1899, 
before the Association of Southern Colleges and Prepara- 
tory Schools. Printed in the School Review of February, 
1900, and included in tliis volume by permission of the 
publishers. 

71 



72 THE UNIFICATION 

encies that have given this degree its highest 
standing in the world of letters. In these coun- 
tries it has long been the badge of an educated 
man." President Schurman, in a paper written 
in March, 1897, to explain Cornell's action in 
coming to the one-degree basis, said that the B.A. 
degree has long stood for the fullest measure of 
liberal education. But it is needless to multiply 
witnesses ; in England and America it is the gen- 
eral belief that the B.A. degree, above any other 
degree, signifies that its holder has pursued 
courses of study, completion of which ensures a 
liberal education. 

Nor is it at all surprising that this degree has 
been chosen as the standard of culture, for, while 
with respect to many things there is nothing in 
a name, historic facts are frequently crystallized 
in names, as a short statement of the rise of uni- 
versity degrees will attest. The first degrees 
granted by mediaeval universities were Master and 
Doctor. They were first granted at Salernum, 
Bologna, and Paris, to persons who had demon- 
strated their fitness to teach or to practice law, 
medicine, or theology. These two titles, which 
were used interchangeable, in the beginning had 
no connection whatever with the "arts" studies, 
university work, as intimated above, being con- 
fined to professional instruction. Later on, be- 
cause of the fact that universities were either the 
outgrowth of the "arts" schools, or were devel- 
oped in association with them, the "arts" faculty 



OF COLLEGE DEGREES 73 

was added to the professional faculties of law, 
medicine, and theology, and hence arose the prac- 
tice of conferring the mastership or doctorate 
for proficiency in the "arts" subjects also. It 
is altogether probable that the early doctorate or 
mastership was not a formal degree, but merely 
a license, or a faculty to teach (licentia docendi, 
facultas docendi). It may not be improper to 
remark here, by way of parenthesis, that the old 
universities considered it their chief duty to give 
men preparation for teaching and that modern 
universities are resuming a function which, for 
causes not necessary to recount, was allowed to 
lapse, but which thoughtful men everywhere are 
beginning to realize is a factor of no mean im- 
portance in the progress of education. 

In the course of time the mastership was con- 
fined to "arts" graduates in the University of 
Paris, an example which had great influence upon 
other universities, while the doctorate was re- 
served for those who completed their studies in 
one of the professional faculties, law, medicine, 
or theology. In Germany, however, the two titles 
were not distinguished, but in the end Master 
was eliminated and Doctor came to be applied to 
"arts," as well as to professional studies. Even 
the term "arts" has disappeared and philosophy/, 
the chief of the "arts" studies, has been adopted 
instead. 

A brief inquiry concerning the Latin term, 
artes, may be of advantage in tracing the history 



74 THE UNIFICATION 

of "arts" degrees. The word studies is, without 
doubt, the best English equivalent for the Latin, 
artes. The ancient Greeks and Romans did not 
make the clear distinction between the arts and 
the sciences that exists in modern thought. The 
seven liberal arts, which formed the curriculum 
of secondary education in the Middle Ages, em- 
braced (1) the trivium, consisting of grammar 
(Latin grammar, to be sure), dialectics, or logic, 
and rhetoric; and (2) the quadrivium, composed 
of arithmetic, geometry, music, and astronomy. 
These seven studies were not intended to give 
training for professional or industrial life, but 
were designed to afford that mental development 
which free men should enjoy. These "arts" hav- 
ing been incorporated into the work of the uni- 
versities, the University of Paris led the way in 
establishing the practice of granting the degree 
of Bachelor of Arts to boys who, by completing 
the trivium, had reached the half-way point in 
the "arts" course. It is believed that the prac- 
tice of European guilds had decided influence 
upon the question of university degrees, for the 
universities were themselves, in reality, only 
guilds of learning. As mastership in a guild was 
preceded by a period of apprenticeship, so mas- 
tership in "arts" followed a term of bachelorship. 
While prosecuting the studies of the quadrivium, 
it was also the duty of the student, who had com- 
pleted the trivium and had received his B.A. de- 
gree, to assist the masters in instructing the 



OF COLLEGE DEGREES 75 

freshmen, the new aspirants for what might be 
called the apprentice degree in learning. Upon 
receiving his B.A. degree the youth was said to 
enter upon arts {incipere in artibus). The de- 
gree, consequently, looked forward to the time 
when the "arts" studies would be completed and 
when the bachelor would enter upon his career 
of mastership. 

According to Professor Laurie, of the Uni- 
versity of Edinburgh, the title first used to in- 
dicate completion of the trivium was haccalarius, 
meaning a cowherd in the service of a farmer, 
bacca being low Latin for cow (vacca). After- 
ward an error in etymology, which intimately con- 
nected the laurel berry with graduation, trans- 
formed baccalarius into baccalaureus. What- 
ever may be the derivation of the term bachelor, 
it is certain that, up to the time of the great 
Renaissance, the B.A. degree was conferred upon 
boys about 17 or 18 years of age when they had 
finished the first three "arts" studies, grammar, 
dialectics, and rhetoric. Though this course oc- 
cupied the time of the student for three or four 
years, it would to-day be considered as much in- 
ferior to the course of the modern secondary 
school. There was no provision made for the 
study of Latin or Greek literature, the study of 
Latin being confined almost entirely to grammar. 
Latin, it is true, was the language of the scholars 
and of the church; but it was not taught as one 
of the "arts." Greek was not given a place 



76 THE UNIFICATION 

among the seven liberal arts. Logic and rhe- 
toric were taught in their elements ; but the train- 
ing they afforded, was derived mainly through 
demands made upon the verbal memory. The 
mathematics given was of a superficial character, 
while the astronomy did not rise above the dignity 
of astrology. 

With the Renaissance in the fifteenth century 
came great changes in the educational world. 
The rediscovery of the literatures of ancient 
Greece and Rome and the consequent enthusiasm 
which it aroused for the humanities, and which 
spread over Europe with incredible rapidity, not 
only established places for Latin and Greek 
among the "arts," but also resulted in making 
the classics almost the only "arts" taught in the 
schools. The classical curriculum fastened upon 
European nations by Sturm and Ascham, was 
given almost world-wide sovereignty by the 
Jesuits. America, as was natural, followed the 
example of England, and enthroned the classics. 
No more powerful influence has appeared in edu- 
cational history than that of the humanists, with 
whom scholarship derived through the study of the 
ancient classics became the ideal, the summum 
honum, and in fact the solum bonum, of educa- 
tion. It is this ideal that has determined the 
significance of the B.A. degree for hundreds of 
years. A bachelor of arts, up till very recent 
times, has been little more than a bachelor of the 
classics. The requirements for this degree were 



OF COLLEGE DEGREES 77 

fixed before many studies with which we are ac- 
quainted were born. The modern languages and 
literatures, including English, the natural sci- 
ences, and historical and sociological studies were, 
for the most part, if not altogether, either un- 
known or confined to the contributions of the old 
Greeks and Romans. To this day it is said that, 
"if there is any branch of learning in no way 
connected with Aristotle and Plato, which is lec- 
tured on at Oxford, it is an oversight," so tre- 
mendous has been the power of tradition. The 
JB.A. graduate of Harvard in the early days had 
spent four years engaged chiefly in classical 
study, and had complied with the following condi- 
tions for graduation, which are quoted from the 
records of that institution : "Every scholar that 
on proof is found able to read the originals of the 
Old and New Testament [and translate] into the 
Latin tongue, and to resolve them logically, 
withal being of godly life and conversation, and 
at any public act hath the approbation of the 
overseers and the master of the college, is fitted 
to be dignified with his first degree." Of course 
the preparation demanded for entrance into col- 
lege was along classical lines. Henry Dunster, 
Harvard's first president, formulated admission 
requirements as follows : "Whoever shall be 
able to read Cicero or any other such like classical 
author at sight [it is refreshing to see this sen- 
sible provision for election], and make and speak 
true Latin in verse and prose, suo ut aiunt Marte, 



78 THE UNIFICATION 

and decline perfectly the paradigms of nouns and 
verbs in the Greek tongue : Let him then and not 
before be capable of admission into college." As 
late as 1856 the required study of Greek and 
Latin occupied at least two-fifths of the Harvard 
student's time. A great majority of American 
colleges and universities at the present time re- 
quire candidates for the B.A. degree to be trained 
in Latin and Greek both before and after enter- 
ing upon college or university studies. In the 
Report of the United States Commissioner of 
Education for 1896-7 there is given a tabulated 
statement of the B.A. degree entrance require- 
ments of four hundred thirty-two colleges and 
universities. Latin is required by four hundred 
two of these institutions, both Latin and Greek by 
three hundred eighteen, a modern language by 
sixty. A modern language is made optional with 
Greek in twenty-five, while, in addition to Latin 
and Greek, it is required by forty-three. Surely 
no further proof is necessary to show how strong 
is the hold the classics have upon the traditional 
B.A. degree. 

It is worthy of note, however, that the classical 
requirements have lost much of their rigor. In 
their golden age they represented almost the entire 
curriculum. Before election of studies was known, 
the four-year curriculum exacted of the student 
study of Latin and Greek throughout his college 
career. Examination of the B.A. degree require- 
ments now in vogue in this country reveals the 



OF COLLEGE DEGREES 79 

fact that emphasis is laid upon the classics be- 
fore, rather than after, the student's entrance 
into college. It is safe to assert that none of 
our leading institutions require the four-year 
study of either Latin or Greek in college, the 
great majority being satisfied if, for one year, 
or at most two years, the student shall experience 
the joys and sorrows incident to classical instruc- 
tion. Even in Oxford University the require- 
ments have been marvelously changed, indeed 
revolutionized, for in that oldest of English uni- 
versities, there are now as many as seven avenues 
to the B.A. degree, which is conferred upon men 
completing satisfactorily the work of any one of 
these schools : Literas humaniores, mathematics, 
modern history, theology, jurisprudence, natural 
science, and Oriental studies. Within any one of 
these schools there is also an almost indefinite 
number of options. There are, of course, what 
may be termed entrance requirements with re- 
spect to the classics, but they are by no means 
severe, the Greek texts of Mark and John, four 
books of the Anabasis and four books of Caesar 
being considered sufficient. In Harvard the B.A. 
degree can be granted to one even though, during 
his collegiate course, he may not have studied the 
classics a single hour. Harvard, nevertheless, 
still retains a classical requirement for entrance. 
These facts just now presented justify the con- 
clusion that the colleges have, to a large extent, 
broken with their traditions, and have, to some 



80 THE UNIFICATION 

degree at least, adjusted their curricula to meet 
the demands of a new social order ; but they prove 
also that, while the influence of the classics has 
waned, it is yet powerful in the regulation of 
graduation requirements. There are fewer than 
a half-dozen reputable American institutions in 
which the classics, in some form or another, are 
not absolutely prescribed in all, or nearly all, 
the courses leading to purely academic degrees. 

Being germane to this discussion, the inquiry 
is now raised, why has our typical college course, 
which was inherited from Oxford and Cambridge, 
and w^hich was built upon the traditional tripos 
of Greek, Latin, and mathematics, been subjected 
to so great changes? In the first place, as suc- 
cessful men in the various professions began to 
achieve renown in the world of culture also, even 
though they had not received the traditional 
scholastic training, it began to dawn upon the 
minds of the people that subjects other than those 
found in college courses are valuable as means 
for mental discipline and for securing that in- 
definable result known as culture. 

Again, men looked about them and observed 
that tremendous changes, and changes conducive 
to progress, had been effected in all departments 
of human endeavor with the exception of the most 
important of all, that of education. Herbert 
Spencer represented the opinion of a large class 
of men when he declared in an essay published in 
the Westminster Review in 1859, "If we in- 



OF COLLEGE DEGREES 81 

quire what is the real motive for giving boys a 
classical education, we find it to be simply con- 
formity to public opinion. Men dress their chil- 
dren's minds as their bodies, in the prevailing 
fashions." Spencer was far from being a utili- 
tarian of the baser kind in education, yet he con- 
demned that practice which, if it did not pro- 
scribe absolutely, assigned a very insignificant 
place to those knowledges that are more or less 
positively related to the arts of life. His school 
of educational thinkers criticised the point of 
view of the old curriculum, saying that it looked 
almost entirely, if not altogether, to the very an- 
cient past for its ideals ; that it emphasized the 
history of ancient, to the exclusion of modern, na- 
tions ; that, without realizing the power of the 
modern classics, it glorified the ancient languages 
and literatures ; and that it almost totally disre- 
garded the natural sciences, that field of modern 
learning by whose cultivation the world's civiliza- 
tion has been born anew. Not only in the 
mother-country, but also in America, where the 
practical spirit is stronger, the clamor for the 
new studies and the demand for their introduc- 
tion into the curriculum became so strong that 
one by one they were grudgingly admitted. In 
many American institutions they were considered 
as extras or "side-fixings," and for years they 
bore the brunt of flippant jest and cruel sneer. 
Nevertheless, the recognition, however slight, of 
a new study compelled the shortening of the time 



82 THE UNIFICATION 

that had been given to the traditional studies, for 
it was idle to demand that the four-year course 
be increased one year or more. As the new stud- 
ies fought their way into the colleges, the B.A. 
degree, which had all along maintained its maj- 
esty in the world of the liberal arts, gradually 
came to represent less of classical culture. In 
fact there is ground for belief that the degree 
granted by colleges having a fixed four-year 
potpourri curriculum does not represent culture 
of any kind. The compulsion of the student to 
devote himself in rapid succession to Latin, Greek, 
mathematics, physiology, botany, zoology, his- 
tory, philosophy, French, German, political econ- 
omy, etc., prevented him from undue specializing, 
it is true; but it also stretched out his breadth of 
culture to so great a degree as to reduce its depth 
at any point to little, if any, above zero. 

The great majority of these potpourri cur- 
ricula were arranged without any regard to con- 
trolling doctrines of education. Expediency, 
willingness to effect compromises even at the cost 
of truth, the strength and aggressiveness of pro- 
fessors and regents were some of the factors de- 
termining whether a study should gain promi- 
nence or sink into insignificance. These cur- 
ricula are rapidly becoming obsolete, for they are 
foolish, preposterous and disastrous, and they 
perpetrate such outrages upon the most elemen- 
tary educational principles as cannot be tolerated 
in an age which, above all preceding ages, is de- 



OF COLLEGE DEGREES 83 

manding sanity, as well as zeal, in pedagogical 
performances. Fourteen weeks in the study of 
a science may result in the memorizing of a few 
definitions and made-to-order classifications ; hit- 
ting the ground only in high places in traversing 
any great field of human learning may cultivate a 
certain kind of mental agility; but such prac- 
tices cannot beget any real discipline. 

To the leaders in natural science belongs much 
of the credit for the improvement of courses of 
study. Encouraged by the Morrill Act, which 
was passed by Congress in 1862, and of which 
nearly every state in the Union has since taken 
advantage, teachers of natural science demanded 
that it be taught intelligently. None knew bet- 
ter than they that a smattering of science, gained 
without experience in the laboratory, is without 
profit, is a delusion amounting almost to a crime, 
and that such a science is utterly unworthy to 
rank with Greek, Latin, and mathematics as a 
liberal art. They recognized that, far from be- 
ing a liberal art, it was a liberal humbug of colos- 
sal proportions. As late as 1872 Professor Jor- 
dan, now President Jordan, of Leland Stanford 
Junior University, complained of the condition of 
science teaching. He was at that time professor 
of natural history in an Illinois college ; it was 
his duty to give instruction in zoology, botany, 
geology, physiology, physics, chemistry, miner- 
alogy, natural theology, and political economy. 
No wonder he confesses with Spartan brevity that 



84. THE UNIFICATION 

he taught "a little of each to little purpose." ^ 
At one time he attempted to establish a small 
chemical laboratory, but the board of trustees in- 
formed him that students should be kept out of 
what was called the "cabinet" in order that the 
apparatus might not be hurt and the chemicals 
wasted. But Professor Jordan and his col- 
leagues persisted in their determination to dig- 
nify work in science. Among the great leaders 
may be mentioned Agassiz, w4io may be regarded 
as the father of the B.S. degree, and whose labors 
in Harvard marked an era in the history of that 
institution. So thoroughly has the educational 
value of science been demonstrated that in all 
reputable colleges it is now no longer questioned. 

Similarly the modern languages (including 
English), history and the sociological group of 
studies were raised to the plane of the liberal arts. 
The new studies having gained actual, not nomi- 
nal, recognition, college faculties were compelled 
to decide that no student could be expected, 
within the short period of his academic life, to 
give attention to all the subjects in which instruc- 
tion was offered. For this reason the third phase 
of the B.A. curriculum appeared, the phase 
through which it is now passing, and which has 
for its characteristic feature the elective system 
of studies. This system, which prevails to a 
greater or a less degree in the colleges of the 
country, recognizes the inherent value of all stud- 

2 Jordan's "Care and Culture of Men," p. 187. 



OF COLLEGE DEGREES 85 

ies, new as well as old; but even yet, so far as 
the B.A. degree is concerned, it is generally held 
that Latin, at least, is indispensable, for which, 
in the now almost unlimited range of the liberal 
arts, there is no adequate substitute. The sys- 
tem of election, however, has greatly modified the 
requirements for this degree, which is now con- 
ferred upon men and women that have pursued 
widely varying courses of study. 

The several courses leading to the B.A. degree 
as now conferred by Tulane University represent 
fairly well the evolution of that degree, the prin- 
ciple of election, however, being somewhat limited, 
as it is confined to four-year curricula instead of 
smaller groups of subjects or to individual sub- 
jects. Tulane has three B.A. curricula. The 
first is denominated the "Classical Course," in 
which Greek and Latin are required in each of 
the four years, and mathematics in the freshman 
and sophomore years. That the Tulane authori- 
ties believe the classical to be the best of the 
three B.A. courses, this paragraph, taken from 
the catalogue of 1898-9, leaves little room to 
doubt : 

"The Classical Course, following well-approved 
lines, requires both Greek and Latin, thus affording 
to the student willing to submit to the invaluable and 
unsurpassed mental discipline of these studies the op- 
portunity to obtain a solid classical education." 

The "Literary Course" is the "Classical 



86 THE UNIFICATION 

Course" so changed as to permit the substitution 
of modern languages for Greek. The great ma- 
jority of the college world would commend Tulane 
for recognizing the equivalence of Greek and mod- 
ern languages, and for conferring the "arts" de- 
gree upon graduates of her literary course. Too 
often the B. Lit. or the Ph.B. degree has been 
adopted to gratify those not able or willing to 
meet Greek requirements, thus giving also at the 
same time no offense to the defenders of the old 
faith who maintain that any change whatever 
with respect to the traditional requirements of 
the classics for the "arts" degree would be 
fraught with danger to the student, and with 
ruin to the cause of genuine culture. The 
"Latin-Scientific Course," the name given to the 
third of Tulane's B.A. curricula, requires no 
Greek, and only one year of Latin. The fresh- 
man studies are the same as those prescribed in 
the "Literary Course," while the remaining 
three years' work Is Identical with that prescribed 
for aspirants for the B.S. degree, consisting 
largely of the natural sciences, together with 
mathematics and modern languages. It is easy 
to understand why the term scientific is applied 
to this course, but why the prefix Latin occurs Is 
inexplicable to one not acquainted with the his- 
tory of the arts degree. This third B.A. cur- 
riculum was established to meet demands made 
upon the university authorities, for the Tulane 
catalogue Informs us that "it has been added to 



OF COLLEGE DEGREES 87 

meet the suggestion of many, as specially adapted 
to preparation for the Medical Department." 
Other students than those having in view the pro- 
fession of medicine are allowed to pursue the 
"Latin-Scientific Course." This third B.A. cur- 
riculum offered in Tulane fairly represents the 
present degree of advancement toward the co- 
ordination of college studies. Most men are now 
willing that the "arts" baccalaureate be conferred 
upon a graduate if only Latin be one of the stud- 
ies by means of which he has acquired liberal cul- 
ture. 

There can be but one other phase in the evolu- 
tion of the B.A. degree. Even now there are in- 
dications that this fourth phase is at hand. Har- 
vard no longer requires Greek and Latin as col- 
legiate studies, her classical requirement not ex- 
tending beyond the Latin of the secondary school. 
The eminent Greek scholar, Professor Goodwin, 
in the Phi Beta Kappa address delivered at Har- 
vard in 1890, stated with evident regret, that a 
Phi Beta Kappa man could graduate from that 
institution without having read a word of Greek 
or Latin during his college career. Concerning 
the decadence of time-honored ideals, he remarked : 
"I regret this breaking-up, but we must accept 
it as a stubborn fact." Times have indeed vastly 
changed since the Middle Ages, and educational 
ideals also have changed to meet the new require- 
ments of the changed civilization. Already some 
of the leading universities of America have ac- 



88 THE UNIFICATION 

cepted without qualification the doctrine of equiv- 
alence of studies, and, with a desire to foster all 
studies, and to discriminate against none, have 
made it possible for the B.A. degree to be ob- 
tained regardless of training in either of the an- 
cient classics. Some other institutions, as we 
have seen in the cases of Harvard and Tulane, 
are not far from the adoption of a similar policy, 
for their absolute classical requirement is really 
of little consequence. 

There is abundant testimony from another 
quarter also. During the last ten years there 
has been much discussion of problems pertaining 
to both secondary and higher education. Of 
high-school and college professors there have been 
many conferences, at some of which the question 
of election of studies has received no little con- 
sideration. At these conferences it has been no 
unusual thing to hear such statements as these, 
which were made at a meeting of the North Cen- 
tral Association of Colleges and Secondary 
Schools, held in the city of Chicago, April 1 and 
2, 1898: 

"So far as Latin is concerned, it is a well-known 
fact that the trend of universities to-day is in the 
direction of dispensing with Latin as an absolute 
admission requirement. A student who is a candi- 
date for the B.A. degree is now permitted to enter 
Harvard, the University of Pennsylvania, Stanford, 
Cornell, not to name otliers, without Latin." ^ 

3 President Rogers, of Northwestern University. 



OF COLLEGE DEGREES 89 

"I was for thirteen years a professor of Latin in 
Tulane University at New Orleans. I love Latin 
dearly, but I am against requiring it for all courses 
anywhere." * 

The Committee of Ten, which was appointed 
in 1895 at the Denver meeting of the National 
Educational Association to investigate the ques- 
tion of the college-entrance requirements, and 
which consisted of five college professors and five 
teachers engaged in secondary schools, made two 
or three preliminary reports, and then submitted 
its final report last July as the result of four 
years' exhaustive study. In the first preliminary 
report, made in 1896 by Chairman Nightingale, 
himself a man trained in the classics as a student 
and for more than twenty years as a teacher, an 
honored member of many classical conferences, 
occurs this paragraph, which represents the views 
of a great number of teachers in the secondary 
schools : 

"College courses ought to be so adjusted that every 
pupil, at the end of a secondary course, recognized 
as excellent both in the quality and quantity of its 
work, may find the doors of every college swinging 
wide to receive him into an atmosphere of deeper re- 
search and higher culture along lines of his mental 
aptitudes. We do not mean that secondary courses 
should be purely elective, but that this elasticity, 
based upon psychological laws, should be recognized 

* President Jesse, of Missouri State University. 



90 THE UNIFICATION 

by the colleges. There is no identity of form, either 
in mind or matter, in the natural or the spiritual 
world, and, since power to adapt one's self to the 
sphere for which nature designed him is the end of 
education, every student should find the college and 
university the means by which that power may be 
secured. If this principle is correct — and who shall 
prove its fallacy.'' — why is not the degree of B.S. 
or Ph.B. of equal dignity and worth with that of 
A.B.? Or, in other words, why should not all de- 
grees be abolished or molded into one which shall 
signify that a man or woman has secured that higher 
education best suited to his talents and the far- 
reaching purposes of his life.''" 

In the last report of the Committee is to be 
found a series of recommendations in the form of 
resolutions, the sixth of which advocates four 
units, i.e., four years of training in foreign lan- 
guage study as a college admission requirement, 
and as a constant in the course of study of the 
secondary school. Truly Professor Goodwin 
made no mistake when he said that we must ac- 
cept the breaking-up of old ideals as a stubborn 
fact. 

Whether many other American institutions will 
follow the lead of Cornell and Stanford and adopt 
the policy of conferring B.A. without regard to 
the classics, cannot be foretold with certainty. 
The fourth stage in the evolution of the degree 
may have a fatal attack of arrested development, 
but the evidences, only an insignificant portion of 



OF COLLEGE DEGREES 91 

V/hich has been given in this paper, are sufficiently 
strong to create the belief that Latin, as well as 
Greek, must become reconciled to its "manifest 
destiny," and must be content with holding a 
rank no more distinguished than that held by 
other studies that are, and of right ought to be, 
classified among the liberal arts. 

A brief examination of baccalaureate degrees 
other than B.A. is not foreign to this discussion, 
for the new studies have not only made extensive 
invasions upon the B.A. curriculum, but have also 
fortified themselves by means of separate, inde- 
pendent curricula leading to new degrees. His- 
torically considered, so far as America is con- 
cerned, the first genuine recognition given the 
new studies was the creation of the new degrees. 
The old studies had been so long associated with 
the old degree that the humanists were unwilling 
then, as many are to-day, to disturb a union be- 
lieved to be sacred, while the apostles of the mod- 
ern subjects were ready, if not eager, to estab- 
lish a new academic degree which they hoped 
would, in the course of time, be considered equal, 
in fact superior, to the traditional degree. The 
degree of Bachelor of Science was first conferred 
in this country in 1851 upon the four members 
of the graduating class of the Lawrence Scientific 
School, Joseph Le Conte and David Ames Wells 
being among the number. 

The B.S. degree was in the beginning greatly 
handicapped, both because it was considered in- 



92 THE UNIFICATION 

ferior and because it was distinctly inferior to 
B.A. At Harvard the requirements for admis- 
sion into the Lawrence Scientific School were de- 
cidedly less rigorous than the regular entrance 
requirements of the college. Nearly a half cen- 
tury this inequality was maintained, for in Presi- 
dent Eliot's report for 1897-8 we read: 

"The most important piece of work accomplished 
by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences for the year 
under review was the revision of the requirements 
for admission to Harvard College and the Lawrence 
Scientific School. . . . The faculty had also 
agreed upon a preliminary statement of the terms of 
admission to the Lawrence Scientific School, which 
involved a gradual raising of the admission require- 
ments for that school to substantial equality with 
those of the college, although the range of acceptable 
subjects was larger than in the college." 

In another paragraph of the same report there 
is evidence that the elder Agassiz's dream of 
breaking up the old college routine had been al- 
most, if not altogether, realized. "The status 
of the scientific student in Cambridge," says Dr. 
Eliot, "has completely changed within ten years; 
he is no longer an outsider, but a comrade and an 
equal of the college student in every respect. He 
has the same rights in the same building and as- 
sociations ; is eligible to the same clubs, teams, 
and crews ; shares with the candidates for the A.B. 
the delights and charges of Class Day, and gradu- 



OF COLLEGE DEGREES 93 

ates on the same day after the same period of 
residence." 

The struggle which the B.S. degree encountered 
at Harvard has marked its history, but fre- 
quently with less success, at other institutions. 
With respect to this matter President Jordan, of 
Leland Stanford, writes : 

"Most of our colleges have, at one time or other, 
arranged courses of study not approved by the faculty 
in response to the popular demand for many studies 
in a little time. Such a course of odds and ends is 
always called 'the scientific course,' and it leads to the 
appropriate degree of B. S. — Bachelor of Surfaces." ° 

In relation to the history of the B.S. degree, 
President Jordan can fitly use the language of 
^neas, 

"quaeque ipse miserrima vidi 
Et quorum pars magna fui," 

for in three states he has been a conspicuous 
figure in educational discussion and progress. 
He himself tells how he remembers long and 
dreary faculty meetings, in which were devised sci- 
entific courses, short in time and weak in quality, 
for students voluntarily or necessarily declining 
to become candidates for the B.A. degree. 
"There was," he declared in an address delivered 
in 1893, "no scientific preparation or achieve- 
ment required in these courses. They were sci- 
B Jordan's "Care and Culture of Men," p. 175. 



94 THE UNIFICATION 

entific in the sense that they were not anything 
else. Their degree of Bachelor of Science was 
regarded, and rightly so, as far inferior to the 
time honored B.A. In the inner circle of educa- 
tion, it was regarded as no degree at all. Grad- 
ually, however, this despised degree has risen to 
a place with the others. ... In our best col- 
leges to-day the study of science stands side by 
side with the study of language and the one 
counts equally with the other." That the B.S. 
curriculum did not always train students 
in science, is not questioned by anyone ac- 
quainted with college history. There has 
been a time when, in one institution, at least, it 
was possible for a student to obtain the B.S. de- 
gree without completing a single year's work in 
a natural science. But that time has happily 
passed away. It is, nevertheless, a fact, ad- 
mitted by every member of the faculty of that in- 
stitution, that the requirements for the B.S. de- 
gree are even now by no means coordinate with 
those for the B.A. degree. 

Illinois University furnishes additional proof 
that the B.S. degree, in order to acquire respecta- 
bility, has spent years in the effort to level itself 
up to the B.A. requirements. President Draper, 
in a discussion of the elective admission require- 
ments, which were made effective in that institu- 
tion for the first time in September, 1899, main- 
tained that the new plan for entrance rests upon 
the assumption that the several bachelor degrees 



OF COLLEGE DEGREES 95 

are of equivalent value. "The scheme," he ex- 
plained, "assumes that the degree of Bachelor of 
Science does, or ought to, imply a discipline, or 
educational training, equal to that of the Bach- 
elor of Arts ; that the man who is trained pri- 
marily in scientific work ought to be as liberally 
trained as a man who has been trained in the hu- 
manities. And it was particularly in our effort 
to make the degrees of the different colleges in 
our university of equal value, that this new 
scheme was adopted. It raises, I might say in 
passing, the entrance requirements for courses 
leading to all degrees, in our university, except 
that of Bachelor of Arts, from, I think, 20 to 40 
per cent." It is, therefore, plain that the Uni- 
versity of Illinois, up to the beginning of the 
present scholastic session, has not required of her 
B.S. students as rigorous training as of her B.A. 
students, and it reasonably follows that, up to 
this time, her B.A. degree has been justly entitled 
to preeminence. 

Concerning the B.S. degree Cornell University 
furnishes proof similar to that already set forth 
in this paper. Up to 1886 a student desiring to 
enter her B.S. course was examined only in the 
elementary subjects, to which was added French 
or German covered by one year of high-school in- 
struction, or advanced mathematics. The re- 
quirements ten years later were so changed as to 
embrace, in addition to the elementary subjects, 
French and German covered by three years' high- 



96 THE UNIFICATION 

school instruction in each of the two languages, 
and advanced mathematics. President Schur- 
man, referring to this matter in 1897, wrote: 

"Cornell early became convinced that the granting 
of 'cheap degrees' is in every way hurtful to the in- 
terests of true education. . . . The old B.S. and 
B.L. were unfair rivals of the B.A. . . . The 
whole trend of legislation at Cornell in the past has 
been in the direction of equalizing the dignity of 
degrees by equalizing the difficulty of obtaining them." 

In Tulane University the B.S. course has been 
so strengthened as to bring it up to the B.A. 
standard, and it is now claimed that the two 
courses, "though directed in different pursuits in 
life, are parallel and equivalent in the amount, 
proportion, and exactness of the training and in- 
struction offered." 

On this point additional testimony, which the 
history of the B.S. degree in many other institu- 
tions furnishes, seems unnecessary. Enough has 
been presented to establish the general proposi- 
tion that, at the expiration of a half-century of 
discussion, experiment, and contest, the degree of 
Bachelor of Science has become respectable, and 
that, at least, the college world is beginning to 
respect it as a title which bears witness of liberal 
culture. It is only just to remark, before pas- 
sing from this phase of the discussion, that the 
science men and the modern-language men have at 
every stage of the evolution of the B.S. degree 



OF COLLEGE DEGREES 97 

manifested an earnest desire to make the cur- 
riculum leading to it equivalent to any other bach- 
elor curriculum in respect to the quantity and 
also the quality of the requirements both before 
and after admission to college. Wherever they 
have been allowed, they have fully demonstrated 
that, under favorable conditions, i.e., when all 
subjects were granted equal favor by college au- 
thorities, the B.S. degree has steadily increased its 
requirements, and has established its claims to 
respectability, and has, particularly in later 
years, gained marked popular favor among stu- 
dents. 

The struggles of the degrees of Bachelor of 
Philosophy and Bachelor of Literature have been 
similar to those of the degree of Bachelor of Sci- 
ence; but have not been crowned with so much 
success. Created to meet the wants of students 
not able or not willing to comply altogether with 
the classical requirements for the B.A. degree, 
established in many instances that persons of in- 
ferior preparatory training of any kind might 
be admitted to college and given the opportunity 
of securing diplomas of graduation, it is no won- 
der that these two degrees have been regarded as 
unworthy of ranking with that degree which has 
all along been the standard for measuring liberal 
culture. They have often been considered, and 
properly so, by both students and faculties, as 
species of "consolation prizes," doled out to those 
unable to secure more excellent and honorable 



98 THE UNIFICATION 

awards. Notwithstanding the fact just now re- 
counted, there has been for some years a well- 
defined and partially successful effort to 
strengthen and enrich the courses leading to these 
degrees. Among educational leaders there have 
been constantly deepening convictions that re- 
quirements for all Bachelor degrees should be 
equalized ; that the granting of "cheap degrees" 
lowers the standard of culture and becomes a pro- 
lific source of other educational evils. As these 
convictions have here and there been transformed 
from idea into reality, these two minor degrees 
have gained caste, and, like the B.S. degree, they 
are now in some places accorded decent recogni- 
tion as badges of culture. The fact is that, the 
inequalities in the requirements for the several 
Bachelor degrees once being removed, the differ- 
ences remaining dwindle into insignificance. One 
is consequently not surprised that President Eliot, 
after calling attention in his annual report, dated 
January 9, 1899, to the fact that the aggregate 
of the new degrees conferred in 1898 by eight of 
the leading colleges exceeded the number of B.A. 
degrees awarded by the same universities, and 
after showing how great have been the inroads 
made upon the fields of liberal culture, territory 
which was formerly occupied exclusively by the 
old degree, submits this reflection: 

"It is, therefore, a pressing question how to secure 
and defend a legitimate province for the degree of 
Bachelor of Arts." 



OF COLLEGE DEGREES 99 

This same question was raised at Cornell as 
soon as the requirements for the several degrees 
were equalized, and during the session of 1895-6 
it was decided that, because liberal scholarship is 
the one common aim of all students prosecuting 
study in the liberal arts and pure sciences, only 
one degree be granted to signify that this one 
aim of the undergraduate has been realized. It 
was argued that the purely academic department 
of Cornell is the expression of a single educa- 
tional principle, with which the multiplication of 
degrees is clearly inconsistent. The conclusion 
was reached, which answered President Eliot's 
"pressing question" four years before he pro- 
pounded it, that the legitimate province of the 
B.A. degree is the entire range of studies that 
have demonstrated their fitness to bear the title 
of liberal arts, all studies that are not to be clas- 
sified as belonging to technical or professional 
education. 

From the foregoing discussion of the new de- 
grees one may, not without reason, conclude that 
history will, in all probability, repeat itself, and 
that the B.A. degree will again hold undisputed 
sway in the realm of the liberal arts, but a realm 
amazingly and gloriously enriched by the policy 
of expansion which has characterized the world 
of learning during the latter half of the Nine- 
teenth Century. 



VI 



THE ORGANIZATION OF THE DEPART- 
MENT OF EDUCATION IN COLLEGES 
AND UNIVERSITIES ^ 

It is the purpose of this paper to set forth 
the relations which the department of education 
should bear to other departments in colleges and 
universities, and to determine, if possible, a 
scheme of organization by which those relations 
may be justly maintained. After a brief his- 
torical survey of the professional education of 
teachers, the situation as it is to-day will be pre- 
sented in detail, and then will follow a discussion 
of the question at issue. 

I. HISTORICAL SURVEY 

In the university of ancient Athens questions 
pertaining to the department of education were 
neither important nor troublesome. Notwith- 
standing the fact that the Greeks seriously un- 
dertook the reflective study of human nature, and 
founded schools of philosophy whose influences 

1 A monograph discussed by the National Society of Col- 
lege Teachers of Education at the meeting held in Chicago 
February 26 and 27, 1907. 

100 



COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES 101 

have survived to this day, problems belonging to 
the theory and practice of teaching were not sci- 
entifically considered ; hence there arose among 
the Athenians no professor of education to dis- 
turb his colleagues, or to be disturbed himself, 
because of efforts to make satisfactory adjust- 
ment of the study of education to academic en- 
vironment. 

In ancient Rome, also, the education depart- 
ment was unknown ; not even a course in educa- 
tion was offered. So, too, the universities in the 
Middle Ages got on very comfortably for cen- 
turies without the assistance of education pro- 
fessors. The fact is that the study of education 
was born in modern times, the Jesuits being first 
to give the subject serious consideration. 

Along with other new subjects the study of 
education has had a long and an arduous strug- 
gle to secure recognition. In prolonging the 
contest two causes have been especially aggres- 
sive and efficient. The first of these causes may 
be stated thus : The Renaissance established 
classical learning as the ideal of education, and 
faith in the efficiency and all-sufficiency of the 
culture-material embodied in the languages and 
literatures of ancient Greece and Rome became 
as unyielding as that of Jonathan Edwards in 
the five points of Calvinism. Education, there- 
fore, as well as every other aspiring new subject, 
experienced the greatest difficulty in entering the 
charmed circle of the liberal arts, for, in the 



102 DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION IN 

field of learning, as in that of politics, the way of 
the "trust-buster" is hard. 

The second of the causes is the opinion, long 
entertained by people generally, including even 
teachers themselves, that there is no science of 
teaching. Somewhat more than twenty years ago 
the Hon. Robert Lowe, a leading educational of- 
ficer in England, declared that there could be "no 
such thing as the science of education." ^ Eng- 
lishmen accepted this declaration without ques- 
tion, and not a few American educators heard it 
with manifestations of delight. But it is unnec- 
essary to go even twenty years into the past for 
proof that the study of education is not uni- 
versally regarded with favor. In 1904 Prof. 
Barrett Wendell, of Harvard University, con- 
tributed to a popular magazine an article from 
which these sentences are taken : 

"Of all our educational superstitions, we may freely 
admit, none is more instantly apparent than that 
which worships the classics and mathematics as idols. 
And yet the newer educational superstition, which 
bows the knee to pedagogics, is beginning to seem 
more mischievously idolatrous still." ^ 

Even to-day are to be found members of the 
Harvard faculty and of the faculties in other 

2 Quick's "Educational Reformers," p. 379. 

3 "Our National Superstition," The North American Re- 
view, September, 1904, p, 401. 



COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES 103 

colleges and universities who, if possible, surpass 
Professor Wendell in expressions of contempt 
for education as a university study. 

In spite of the hindering causes above detailed, 
in spite of the fact that some of the leaders in 
the study of education have been blessed with 
more zeal than either scholarship or sense, in spite 
of the ravages wrought by fakirs and camp- 
followers swift to take advantage of opportunities 
afforded by the exploiting of a new idea, the his- 
tory of the university movement to dignify the 
office of the teacher, to establish education upon 
the basis of reason rather than upon that of tra- 
dition and caprice and empiricism, to elevate edu- 
cation to the plane of other worthy subjects, 
stands in need of no apology, for it contains a 
record of the deeds of many faithful, intelligent, 
courageous souls, who, enduring crosses and de- 
spising shame for half a century or longer, have 
been actively engaged on the firing line of educa- 
tional reform. That record cannot here be given 
in detail ; but attention is invited to a review of 
some of its more important features. 

Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet, so Dr. Will S. 
Monroe has recently discovered in his study of 
the life of Henry Barnard, was the first American 
professor to conduct education courses in a uni- 
versity. For at least two years, beginning in 
1832, Gallaudet gave instruction in the philoso- 
phy of education at the University of the City of 
New York, now called New York University. 



104 DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION IN 

This information, revealed by the Barnard cor- 
respondence, Professor Monroe says, is confirmed 
by Hough's "Historical and Statistical Record of 
the University of New York." 

In 1849 President Wayland, of Brown Univer- 
sity, offered his resignation of the presidency of 
that institution because he was unable to inau- 
gurate educational reforms he considered neces- 
sary. His resignation, however, was not ac- 
cepted, the corporation appointing a committee, 
with Dr. Wayland himself as chairman, to pre- 
pare a report concerning the new policies which 
he believed should be inaugurated. The report 
of the committee was submitted in 1850. Among 
the new courses which were recommended, and 
which the corporation afterward adopted, was "a 
course of instruction in the science of teaching." * 
This, commonly regarded as the first course in 
education ever given in an American university, 
was announced under the name of "Didactics," 
and was described in the Brown catalogue as fol- 
lows: 

"Didactics. — This department is open for all those 
who wish to become professional teachers. A course 
of lectures will be given on the habits of mind neces- 
sary to eminent success in teaching; the relation of 
the teacher to the pupil; the principles which should 
guide in the organization of the school; the arrange- 
ment and adaptation of studies to the capacity of the 

4 Barnard's Journal of Education, Volume 13, pp. 778-780. 



COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES 105 

learner; the influences to be employed in controlling 
the passions, forming the habits, and elevating the 
tastes of the young; and on the elements of the art 
of teaching, or the best methods of imparting in- 
struction in reading, grammar, geography, history, 
mathematics, language, and the various other branches 
taught in our higher seminaries. All these lectures 
are accompanied with practical exercises, in which 
each member is to participate. 

"For the benefit of teachers generally a class has 
already been formed consisting of persons not con- 
nected with the university. . . . Lectures are 
given at the lecture room of the high school, on Benefit 
Street, twice a week on the various topics embraced 
in the course of elementary teaching." ^ 

The first professor of didactics in Brown Uni- 
versity was S. S. Greene, one of the thirty-one 
Boston schoolmasters, who had helped to make 
Horace Mann famous by attacking, in 1844, his 
celebrated Seventh Annual Report, a document 
devoted especially to advocacy of the study of 
education. In 1854, for want of funds, the Chair 
of Didactics was abolished at Brown University, 
her students being thereafter permitted to study 
education courses in the Rhode Island Normal 
School, which had been established in Providence. 
Education did not again find its way into the 
Brown University curriculum until almost fifty 
years had passed. 

The next effort to establish education as a col- 
5 Educational Review, Volume 19, p. 112. 



106 depart:\ient of education in 

lege course was made in Antioch College by Hor- 
ace Mann, who, after serving twelve ^-ears as Sec- 
retary of the Massachusetts Board of Education 
and a term or two in Congress, became, in 1853, 
the president of the institution just now named. 
It is believed that the instruction given was that 
of the normal school, rather than of the univer- 
sity, grade. How long even this kind of instruc- 
tion was given at Antioch, is not surely known ; 
but it certainly ceased with the downfall of the 
College in the early days of the Civil War. 

A feeble legislative attempt to provide instruc- 
tion in education at the Missouri State Univer- 
sity was made in 1867 ; but the effort resulted in 
failure, there being at that time no one in that 
state to "show" the Missourians how the thing 
could be done. That was before the days, we re- 
member, of the vigorous and progressive admin- 
istration of President R. H. Jesse. 

In the State University of Iowa, from 1856 to 
1873 there were efforts to insure instruction to 
teachers, finally culminating in the establishment 
of the Chair of IVIcntal Philosophy, Moral Phi- 
losophy and Didactics. The Didactics being only 
a tail, and a very small one at that, attached to 
those two big mental and moral philosophy ca- 
nines, it is no wonder that they found it both 
easy and amusing to wag in any way they pleased 
the caudal appendage they held in common. 

To Michigan University, possibly, belongs the 
honor of establishing in this country the first 



COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES 107 

bona fide professorship to be devoted exclusively 
to the professional side of the equipment of teach- 
ers. This chair was established in June, 1879, 
when there were in the English-speaking world 
only two college chairs of education — the Bell 
chairs in Edinburgh and St. Andrews. The 
Michigan chair was founded as the result of the 
persistent efforts of President Angell, who, both 
as a student and as a professor in Brown Uni- 
versity, had profited by his acquaintance with 
President Wayland. In the circular describing 
the proposed work of the new chair these pur- 
poses were enumerated: 

"1. To fit university students for the higher posi- 
tions in the public-school service. 

"2. To promote the study of educational science. 

"3. To teach the history of education and of educa- 
tional systems and doctrines. 

"4. To secure to teachers the rights, prerogatives, 
and advantages of the profession. 

"5. To give a more perfect unity to the state ed- 
ucational system by bringing the secondary schools 
into closer relations with the University." ® 

In 1882 that great college president, F. A. P. 
Barnard, of Columbia, in his annual report made 
a strong and a comprehensive plea for giving the 
study of education standing-room in the univer- 
sity. I would that there were time to quote his 

« Hinsdale in Educational Review, Volume 19, p. 118. 



108 DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION IN 

entire discussion of the value of the study of edu- 
cation, for the argument is so clearly, fully, and 
convincingly made that to-day it stands in need 
of no revision. Space enough is taken to give 
here only the last sentence, which reads: 

"In no other way which it is possible ... to 
imagine, could the power of this institution for good 
be made more widely, eflfectively felt, than in this 
[professional education of teachers] ; in no other way 
than in this could it do so much to vivify and elevate 
the educational system of this great community, 
through all its grades, from the highest to the lowest." 

It was largely because of President Barnard's 
insight and executive power that the great State 
of New York and the country at large have en- 
joyed the benefits of the pedagogical instruction 
once offered in Columbia's School of Philosophy 
and Education, and now given in Teachers' Col- 
lege, into which the education portion of that 
school has been merged and from which lovers of 
sound learning and sane teaching in all parts of 
the Union are receiving both inspiration and prac- 
tical guidance. 

Following the example of Michigan and Colum- 
bia, Cornell, Wisconsin, Kansas, Indiana, Leland 
Stanford, Harvard, Texas, Missouri, Colorado, 
Nebraska, Minnesota, California, and the great 
majority of other reputable American colleges 
and universities, have established education chairs, 



COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES 109 

or even departments of education, coordinate with 
the departments of law, medicine, and theology. 
From 1860 to 1907 many other things, truly, 
happened — things which have not been set down 
above, but which are not devoid of interest. For 
example, in I860, Dr. John M. Gregory, then 
State Superintendent of Public Instruction, first 
gave to the senior class and some other students 
in ]Michigan University, a short course of lec- 
tures, his services being considered as a kind of 
pedagogic lagniappe. Many have been the 
changes wrought in order to develop the embryo 
professional lectureship of the early days into a 
teachers' college, such as may be found in Colum- 
bia, in which to-day are found a greater number 
of professors and instructors and more courses of 
instruction than obtained in all of the depart- 
ments of an average university a generation ago. 
It would be sad, and it may be unprofitable, to 
relate how the pioneer professor of education re- 
ceived such treatment as would lead one to suspect 
that he was in the habit of sitting on the back 
steps of the institution he served and of receiving 
such occasional crumbs of comfort as the more 
charitably inclined of his colleagues and the stu- 
dent-body were constrained to give him. It 
would be a painful task, though it might point 
a moral, to recount the perilous situations which 
educational courses occupied during the storm- 
and-stress period — counting at times nothing at 
all toward an academic degree, at other times re- 



110 DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION IN 

ceiving only partial credit, under the ban here, 
hiding out there, and all the time searching for 
some modus Vivendi that would be, in any degree, 
tolerable. It is, indeed, a far cry from those days 
to our own, in which education ranks with Latin, 
Greek and mathematics, and, in some universities, 
with law and medicine, and in which the professor 
of education has no cause to complain of unjust 
discrimination of either a social, a professional, 
or even a financial character. 



II. THE PRESENT STATUS OF THE PROFES- 
SIONAL EDUCATION OF TEACHERS 

I. In America 

In order that the plans for the organization 
of the professional education of teachers, as it 
now obtains in American colleges and universities, 
might be definitely and accurately known, resort 
was made to the questionnaire, which, to the aver- 
age professor of education, is a present help in 
time of trouble. The questionnaire in this in- 
stance included the following questions : 

1. Is the education work in your institution or- 
ganized into a separate department, coordinate with 
the departments of law, medicine and engineering? 

If it is so organized, give: 

a. The requirements for entrance into the De- 

partment. 

b. The requirements for graduation therefrom. 



COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES 111 

c. The name of the degree conferred by the De- 
partment. 

2. Or is the education work organized into a school 
coordinate with the school of English, mathematics, 
Latin and other schools composing the college of arts, 
or academic department, and do all courses in educa- 
tion count toward academic degrees ? 

3. Or is the work in education given only incident- 
ally as a part of the work of the school of philosophy 
or of some other academic school? 

4. If the department of education obtains, describe 
the powers of administration, showing how its faculty 
is related to other faculties in the institution. 

5. Please give in briefest outline the historical data 
concerning the founding and the subsequent evolution 
of the professional education of teachers in your in- 
stitution. 

6. I shall be greatly indebted to you if you will 
give me a brief statement (a) of an ideal plan for 
organizing the education work in colleges and universi- 
ties, and (b) of that plan which, in view of present 
conditions, you believe it would be the part of wisdom 
to adopt now. 

Responses were received from forty-two insti- 
tutions. An examination of the answers to ques- 
tions 1 to 4 inclusive discloses great variety in 
the plans of organization. Education Is organ- 
ized as a department coordinate with law and 
medicine In the University of Arkansas, Leland 
Stanford Junior University, the University of 
Chicago, the University of Minnesota, the Uni- 
versity of Missouri, the University of Nevada, 



112 DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION IN 

Teachers' College (New York), New York Uni- 
versity, the University of North Dakota, the Uni- 
versity of Cincinnati, the University of Texas, 
Syracuse University, and the University of 
Wyoming. 

It is organized as a school coordinate with the 
school of English, of mathematics or of history, 
or of any other academic study, in the University 
of California, the University of Colorado, the Uni- 
versity of Florida, Northwestern University 
(Evanston, Illinois), the University of Indiana, 
the State University of Iowa, the University of 
Kansas, the University of Nebraska, the Uni- 
versity of New Mexico, Cornell University, Ohio 
State University, Western Reserve University, 
the Oklahoma University, the University of Ten- 
nessee, the University of Utah, the University of 
Virginia, the University of West Virginia and 
the University of Wisconsin. 

In Harvard University education is organized 
as a "division," which has about the same sig- 
nification as expressed by the term school, as used 
above.^ In the University of Illinois there is what 
is called the School of Education ; but it is not 
a school in the narrow sense ; nor is it a depart- 
ment coordinate with law and medicine. It is, 
AS nearly as may be determined about half-way 
between a school and a department, and is coordi- 

7 Divisions in Harvard sometimes include more than one 
subject. Education, prior to February, 1906, belonged to 
the "Division of Philosophy." 



COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES 113 

nate with what is known in the University of Il- 
linois as the School of Music, or the Library 
School.8 

In each of some other institutions education is 
an integral part of the work of a school to which 
is assigned some other subject, also, — generally 
philosophy. In the University of Alabama, the 
University of Georgia, the Louisiana State 
University, the University of Rochester, and the 
University of Oregon the school is known as the 
Department of Philosophy and Education. In 
the University of Pennsylvania, education is a 
part of the School of Philosophy, as is psychol- 
ogy, as well, the three subjects, however, being 
given equal rank. In Clark University education 
is included in the Department (school) of Phi- 
losophy and Psychology, and in Brown University 
it is a province of the Department (school) of 
Philosophy. 

In Bowdoin College there is only a single half- 
year course in education, and that course is con- 
ducted by the Professor of English. 

In Johns Hopkins University and Vanderbilt 
University no provision whatever is made for edu- 

8 The University of Illinois, in order to promote efficient 
administration, is divided into the seven colleges (Literature 
and Arts, Engineering, Science, Agriculture, Law, Medi- 
cine, and Dentistry) and five schools (Music, Library, 
Science, Education, Pharmacy, and the Graduate School). 
This division does not imply that the colleges and schools 
are educationally separate. They are interdependent, and 
form a unit. 



114 DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION IN 

cation courses. Chancclloz- Kirkland, after con- 
fessing Vanderbilt's neglect of an important uni- 
versity function, thus expresses his regret: 

"I am sorry to say that we have no Department 
of Education, and do nothing for the professional 
training of teachers. I regret this state of affairs 
exceedingly, and hope that, before many years, it 
will be possible for us to show something different." 

In each of the colleges and universities where 
education is yoked with philosophy, i. e., where, 
to express it mathematically, it is a half-school, 
or even less, courses in education have the same 
rank as is accorded other college courses, and, 
therefore, they count toward academic degrees. 
There has been no report to the effect that edu- 
cation courses are considered inferior or subordi- 
nate to those in philosophy. On the contrary, from 
Oregon comes the rather remarkable testimony 
that philosophy is, in the university of that state, 
now subordinated to education, and that this sub- 
ordination will probably remain undisturbed. 
Education courses in the group of institutions we 
have just now been considering are elective, be- 
ing open usually only to students above the 
sophomore year. In the Louisiana State Uni- 
versity, however, a course in descriptive psychol- 
ogy may be elected by freshmen, while sophomores 
may elect courses in educational psychology and 
the history of education. 



COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES 115 

In the colleges and universities in which there 
is a school of education coordinate with other 
schools, such as English, history, mathematics, 
etc., education professors have the same rights 
and privileges as are enjoyed by other academic 
professors. In fact, education, as it is organized 
in each of these institutions, is considered merely 
as one of the many schools into which the aca- 
demic department is divided. Education courses 
are elective, being offered to students that are, 
as a rule, of junior rank, or higher. In the state 
universities generally the completion of education 
courses, along with prescribed courses in other 
schools, leads to teachers' certificates, some valid 
for two years, others for four years, and still 
others during the life of the respective holders. 
In each institution in this group education has, 
undoubtedly, won the distinction and the repu- 
tation of a liberal art. It is not dependent upon, 
or subservient to, any other subject. As Pro- 
fessor Olin, of Kansas University, says : 

"The School of Education in Kansas University is 
separate, and has no entangling alliances, is not even 
(to use a Miinsterberg expression) the vermiform 
appendix of the department of philosophy." 

In those institutions in which education depart- 
ments coordinate with the departments of law and 
medicine are maintained, the regulations concern- 
ing organization, administration, admission and 
graduation are varied. At the Universities of 



116 DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION IN 

Arkansas, Missouri, Nevada, North Dakota and 
Wyoming students able to enter the freshman 
class may be admitted into the department of 
education. At the Universities of IVIinnesota and 
Texas and at Chicago University, Teachers' Col- 
lege of Columbia University, Leland Stanford 
University, and the University of Cincinnati no 
regular student below the rank of junior is per- 
mitted to enter the department of education. At 
the School of Pedagogy in New York University 
graduation from a college approved by the Re- 
gents of the New York University is required for 
admission. 

The graduation requirements of the depart- 
ments of education in those schools admitting 
freshmen include courses equivalent to those re- 
quired for obtaining the arts degree. To com- 
plete this work requires the usual four years, 
the University of Arkansas being an exception. 
In that institution the student is graduated upon 
the accomplishment of two years' work. In the 
education departments requiring junior standing 
for entrance two years' additional work must be 
successfully done to meet graduation require- 
ments. Among the requirements for graduation 
from any of the departments of education is in- 
cluded what may be considered teachers' profes- 
sional courses, varying both with respect to num- 
ber and time-limits. 

A graduate of the department of education in 
the University of Arkansas is given the degree of 



COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES 117 

L.I. ; but courses which absolve requirements for 
this degree may be counted also toward the aca- 
demic Bachelor's degrees, which may be obtained 
by an additional two years of successful work. 
In the University of Minnesota and the Univer- 
sity of Cincinnati the B.A. degree is granted to 
the graduate of the department of education. 
In Leland Stanford Jr. University and the Uni- 
versities of Nevada and Wyoming the degree of 
Bachelor of Arts in Education obtains. In 
Teachers' College the Bachelor of Science degree 
is granted ; in Missouri University the degree of 
Bachelor of Science in Education is conferred ; in 
the University of Chicago arrangements have 
been perfected to bestow the degree of Bachelor 
of Arts, Bachelor of Philosophy, Bachelor of Sci- 
ence, as well as Bachelor of Education, the re- 
quirements for the degree last named being much 
the more rigorous. 

The School of Pedagogy of New York Uni- 
versity confers the degrees. Master of Pedagogy 
and Doctor of Pedagogy. Teachers' College of 
Columbia University and the University of North 
Dakota confer upon education graduates certain 
teachers' diplomas, which may be considered as 
quasi-professional degrees. 

The organization of the departments in Amer- 
ican colleges and universities is by no means uni- 
form ; but in each institution where a separate 
department, or college, of education has been es- 
tablished, it enjoys the same rights, privileges, 



118 DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION IN 

and powers as are accorded to any other depart- 
ment, or college. The administrative officers of 
the education department conduct its internal af- 
fairs, and the education faculty is represented in 
the university council, or senate, which deals with 
general policies. 

2. In Some Foreign Countries 

In English universities comparatively little at- 
tention is given to the study of education, the 
teachers' training colleges having very largely 
monopolized the field, apparently with the full and 
free consent of the universities themselves. The 
Oxford University Calendar for 1903, for ex- 
ample, in its faculty of arts, lists as an Educa- 
tion Reader, Maurice Walter Keatinge, the au- 
thor of an excellent translation of the "Didactica 
IMagna" of Comenius. 

In Cambridge University the late Robert Hebert 
Quick in 1879 delivered the first lecture on edu- 
cation offered under the auspices of that ven- 
erable institution. That year he was employed 
to deliver eight educational lectures at Cambridge, 
the honorarium bestowed upon him being twenty- 
five pounds. So far as I am informed, the edu- 
cation work at Cambridge since Quick's day has 
increased from eight lectures a year to a dozen or 
more. Some additional work in education, how- 
ever, is done by both Oxford and Cambridge, but 
my understanding is that it takes the form of ex- 



COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES 119 

tension courses, and that they are not considered 
worthy of credit toward university degrees. 

The University of London for some years has 
been holding examination for students in peda- 
gogy, said examinations being open to graduates 
of that institution and of other approved univer- 
sities. Whether the University of London, under 
its new management, provides for the teaching of 
education courses, I have not been able to learn. 
The student that successfully passes the educa- 
tion examination is granted the "Teachers' Di- 
ploma." Preparation for the passing of the ex- 
amination can be made at the London Day Train- 
ing College, which is supported by the London 
County Council, of which John Adams, the author 
of "Herbartian Psychology Applied to Educa- 
tion," is principal. 

In Edinburgh University, the organization of 
which embraces the six faculties (we would call 
them departments), of arts, science, divinity, law, 
medicine and music, education is assigned to the 
department (school) of philosophy, which is one 
of the four departments (schools) of the faculty 
of arts. For carrying on the work of education 
there is one professor, who gives a course each 
in the theory of education, the art of education, 
and the history of education. 

In Glasgow University education is likewise 
confined to the school of mental philosophy, which 
is a part of the faculty of arts. The education 
courses at Glasgow consist of one hundred lee- 



120 DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION IN 

tures dealing with the theory, art, and history of 
education. 

In St. Andrews, the oldest of the Scotch uni- 
versities, there is an education professorship, 
ranking with the professorship of Greek, mathe- 
matics, etc., some subjects, such as French, physi- 
ology, political science, being assigned to lecture- 
ships. 

In Aberdeen University education courses are 
organized as a lectureship under the aegis of the 
faculty of arts. In Aberdeen, furthermore, there 
has been recently formulated a scheme providing 
for the training of secondary teachers. This 
work will be open to graduates only and to those 
who may otherwise satisfy the Senate of their fit- 
ness to profit by the training. The course is to 
extend over a year and, besides lectures, will in- 
clude discussions, essays, and reports upon prac- 
tical work. Aberdeen grants a diploma in edu- 
cation which presupposes the holding of the M. A. 
degree. 

In German universities education courses, as a 
rule, are given by professors of philosophy.^ The 
Deutscher Universitdts Kalender, Leipzig, 1905 
(Vol. I), reports only two full professors giving 
their whole time to education courses. One of 
these is an honorary professor and the other is 
in the theological faculty. In addition to these 
two full-time professors, there are reported fif- 
teen professors and assistant professors and 
» See Appendix. 



COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES 121 

eleven privat docenten, each of whom divides his 
labors between education and some other subject. 
There are reported six lecturers, also, making a 
total of thirty-four men identified with education 
courses given in twenty-one German universities, 
in which opportunity to study education is of- 
fered. 

The German university is organized into the 
four departments, or faculties, philosophy, the- 
ology, law, and medicine, the philosophy faculty 
corresponding to the American college of arts, or 
academic department. L^p to this time there has 
been no disposition on the part of educational 
leaders in Germany to remove education from the 
position of one of the subjects in the philosophy 
faculty and to elevate it to the rank of a faculty 
itself. 

In this connection we should not forget that, 
in Prussia, at least, the professional training of 
the teacher in the secondary school is promoted 
by agencies outside the universities. The univer- 
sity graduate, undergoing a protracted and 
searching examination, spends a year, his Semi- 
narjaTir, in professional study in an educational 
seminary organically related with a secondary 
school which maintains a nine-year course of 
study. The next year, the Probejahr, he serves 
under constant and expert supervision as an as- 
sistant teacher in a secondary school. However 
great may be the quantity of this training, and 
however excellent its quality, it is not within the 



122 DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION IN 

purpose of this paper to inquire. We are now 
interested in the German university's contribu- 
tion in this direction. This contribution is de- 
scribed by Paulsen, of the University of Berlin, 
as follows: 

"The third task of the philosophical faculty is to 
prepare teachers for the higher schools. Here we 
meet the peculiarity that practically no special ar- 
rangements are made for this purpose in the course 
of instruction; preparation to become a teacher is 
simply synonymous with the equipment of a 
scholar." ^^ 

In the University of Paris education courses 
are in the domain of the faculty of arts. Until 
recently, when he was elected Deputy, M. Buisson 
was in charge of the education work, delivering 
lectures on Mondays, Tuesdays and Saturdays. 

At the University of Bordeaux a professor in 
the faculty of letters directs the education work. 
On Thursdays he deals with questions of moral 
education, on Saturdays he explains pedagogical 
authors, and on Mondays he looks into the semi- 
nar work of candidates for the Doctor's degree. 

In Australian universities there is only one pro- 
fessor of education, the Principal of the Teachers' 
Training College acting as an honorary profes- 
sor in the University of Melbourne and giving 
extension lectures on education. There is, how- 

10 Paulsen's "German Universities," p. 416. 



COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES 123 

ever, an agitation for the endowment and inaugu- 
ration of chairs in the three large universities of 
Adelaide, Sydney and Melbourne. In each Aus- 
tralian state there are normal schools and a teach- 
ers' training college. 

In New South Wales teachers may obtain their 
bachelor's degrees by attending evening lectures 
at the university, while successful young teachers 
are sometimes given leave of absence on salary for 
three or four years to attend day lectures, their 
university fees being paid for them. In this way 
they obtain the bachelor's degree; but they must 
enter into bond for their fees, to be paid should 
they leave the service within ten years from gradu- 
ation. 

III. HOW SHALL THE EDUCATION WORK IN 

COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES BE 

ORGANIZED? 

The facts set forth in the first and second sec- 
tions of this paper are ample evidence that, from 
the standpoint of the individual, teaching is con- 
sidered a most important practical function of 
modern society. Other similar testimony, almost 
without limit, is easily available. The immense 
sums of money spent annually upon schools for 
children, youths and adults in every civilized na- 
tion settles the question as to the value set upon 
the services of the schoolmaster. His labor, as 
regarded from the civic and the spiritual point of 
view, also, not infrequently in these later days, 



124 DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION IN 

receives the highest commendation. This para- 
graph, taken from an address delivered by Presi- 
dent Robert C. Ogdcn before the Ninth Annual 
Session of the Conference for Education in the 
South, held in Lexington, Ky., in April, 1906, is 
fairly representative of the increasing faith of 
the American people in the far-reaching influence 
of the men and women engaged in teaching: 

"The school teachers of America are the trustees 
of our democracy. By them our bulwark of intelli- 
gence is made strong or made weak. But they are 
strong as we sustain them, and they are weak as we 
desert them. When this country realizes its depend- 
ence upon, and obligation to the teachers of America, 
the least appreciated of all who serve society and the 
state, then will appear the Golden Age. The 
teacher, not the millionaire, is the hope of the state. 
The richest man or woman is the teacher to whom the 
gratitude of former scholars is offered in affection- 
ate and enduring homage. Such an one has riches 
that gold cannot buy and an estate that is beyond all 
risk of fire and flood, earthquake and volcano." ^^ 

Along with this respect for the teacher's work 
has been developed the conviction that a calling 
so important individually and socially demands 
special study upon the part of those preparing 
to discharge its difficult and delicate functions. 
This accounts for the fact that teaching as a sub- 
ject of study found a place in the curriculum of 
ii Southern Educational Review, October, 190G, pp. 10-11. 



COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES 125 

the normal school, an institution founded pri- 
marily to prepare teachers for positions in the 
elementary grades, a purpose by which to this 
day it is dominated. The universities, further- 
more, at home and abroad have given recognition 
to the study of education because of both its dis- 
ciplinary and its practical value. It is true, as 
remarked in the first section of this paper, that 
there are some people who have not yet accepted 
the concurrent judgment of educational leaders 
upon this matter. Such minds, suffering from 
either too little education or from much misdi- 
rected education or from feebleness of imagination 
or from inability to comprehend or to love new 
truth, are not such as need to be addressed in a 
paper of this character. If it be admitted that 
the modern university is under bond to preserve, 
propagate and extend all forms of learning that 
minister to the welfare of the several professions 
in which men are engaged, it is certain that the 
profession of teaching should not be overlooked, 
for it is one which, as old Mulcaster said away 
back in the sixteenth century, "maybe not be 
spared." But, surely, we may consider it no 
longer necessary to debate the question whether 
teachers should make special preparation for their 
work. "Train your teachers," says an English 
writer, "has long been the cry. . . . But the 
task of crying in the wilderness is a pleasure com- 
pared with fighting with wild beasts at Ephesus ; 
in other words, the chief difficulties in connection 



126 DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION IN 

with this side of educational progress arise only 
when actual schemes are under discussion." ^^ 
Let us now consider some of the more important 
features in the organization of this work in col- 
lege or university. 

In the first place, in view of the evidence al- 
ready submitted that education is, in point of 
difficulty and dignity, the peer of law or medi- 
cine, it seems certain that it should enjoy the 
benefits of that organization which is granted to 
the professions already thoroughly established. 
In America the professional college, or depart- 
ment, is granted an organization distinct from, 
and independent of, the college, or department, of 
arts. It is precisely this recognition which edu- 
cation is now vigorously striving to obtain 
throughout the country, a recognition which the 
signs of the times indicate will be achieved within 
the life of men now members of this association. 
It was during the Nineteenth Century that the 
professional education of the lawyer and the phy- 
sician was scientifically organized, and was 
raised to the plane of efficiency and respectabil- 
ity; one of the most important duties of the 
Twentieth Century is to perform a similar 
service for the professional education of the 
teacher. 

The advantages of organizing the teacher's 
work into a department, or college, are numerous. 
Only some of the more important of these advan- 

12 Adkins in Westminster Review, February, 1905, p. 177. 



COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES 127 

tages can, at this time, be noted. It is obvious 
that the department organization at once regis- 
ters in the most authoritative and effective way 
the university's conviction that teaching is, in- 
deed, a profession worthy to rank with other pro- 
fessions, and, consequently, worthy of the loyalty 
and best service of men of talent and determina- 
tion. The force of this contention is, by some 
people, lightly esteemed ; but even casual investi- 
gation reveals the fact that universities have uni- 
formly exercised powerful influence in molding 
educational public opinion, and that, in no former 
century, has that influence been so widespread and 
eff'ective as it is to-day. 

Another desirable result from the department 
organization is to add to the student-body of the 
university a large number of serious-minded, ca- 
pable students, the influence of whom, for reasons 
over and above mere increase of attendance, is 
not to be despised by professors and administra- 
tive officers. 

A third benefit, and one not easy to overesti- 
mate, is that the department organization devel- 
ops in prospective teachers an esprit de corps, or, 
as the sociologist would express it, a kind of class 
consciousness. Any one familiar with college life 
will testify to the value and vigor of that species 
of college spirit engendered by the common in- 
terests which bind together all the students of a 
department. As long as the education student 
remains in the college of arts he is simply an arts 



128 DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION IN 

student, and he either fails to manifest any sense 
of professional spirit at all, or, making the at- 
tempt to do so, he soon finds that he is "lone wan- 
dering, if not lost." The love for one's profes- 
sion (it is but a truism to remark, but even tru- 
isms in education are sometimes called in question) 
determines in large measure the degree of his con- 
secration to its service, as well as the character 
of his achievements therein. The world, looking 
on, makes up its verdict concerning any profession 
precisely in accordance with the judgment which 
the profession makes of itself. If the college 
plan of organization should lead teachers to mag- 
nify their own office, not by word of mouth only, 
but also by dignified professional conduct, that 
consummation alone would justify such organiza- 
tion. 

Again, the department of education, vigorously 
and generously administered, guarantees the cer- 
tainty of reproducing in large geometrical ratio 
university scholarship and ideals, for the very na- 
ture of the teaching function itself constitutes 
every one that exercises it a prophet and a priest 
of learning. The dignity of the professional de- 
partment appeals emphatically to ambitious and 
gifted men and women, upon whom, as teachers, 
more than upon any other or all other classes of 
students, the university must depend in the dis- 
charge of one of its greatest duties, the duty of 
fostering educational progress. Have we not, 
then, substantial grounds for rejoicing when we 



COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES 129 

are reminded that the modern university is resum- 
ing the function of educating teachers, a func- 
tion which was regarded as fundamental by the 
mediasval university, crowded as it was with men 
eager to learn and afterward to teach? 

Among the questions demanding consideration 
none is more important than the question of re- 
quirements for admission into, and graduation 
from, the university department of education. 
With respect to one thing there should be no dis- 
agreement — university standards should be main- 
tained. No professional school should have the 
right to bestow the honor of university gradua- 
tion upon students for the completion of courses 
of instruction inferior as to time-limits or as to 
the quality of work required. Those universities 
that are conferring teachers' degrees upon can- 
didates of only junior rank are pursuing a mis- 
taken policy, whether it be regarded from the 
standpoint of the university or from that of the 
professional teacher. 

It is perfectly clear, also, that graduation re- 
quirements should include a liberal number of 
courses in education. Professional insight and 
spirit are plants of slow growth, and can scarcely 
be developed beyond the embryonic stage, much 
less to maturity, by only one or two three-hour-a- 
week courses for a semester or two. At least two- 
thirds of the required courses of the average 
medical college is strictly professional, the re- 
maining one-third being more or less closely re- 



130 DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION IN 

lated to medicine. In the usual college of law 
nearly all the courses are of the professional type. 
So, too, if we believe that the instruction of teach- 
ers along professional lines is necessary, we should 
show our faith by our works, and should require 
it in sufficient quantity to accomplish professional 
results. Awaiting the manifestation of such faith, 
we may reasonably expect the United States Com- 
missioner of Education, in his annual reports upon 
professional education, to continue to furnish 
comprehensive accounts concerning law, theology, 
medicine, dentistry, pharmacy, and veterinary 
medicine, and to make teaching conspicuous by 
its absence from the list of professions meriting 
his attention. The opinion is here advanced that, 
as a minimum, there should be required for grad- 
uation five professional courses, the time-require- 
ment of each course being three lecture-hours a 
week throughout the academic year. Certain aca- 
demic instruction may, furthermore, be regarded 
as quasi-professional. Any subject in which the 
student is specializing and in which, after gradua- 
tion, he himself will instruct students, rightfully 
belongs in the professional category. Just as the 
lawyer-to-be studies law, which he will later use 
in his practice, so the education student that is 
to become a teacher of mathematics, say, pursues 
arts courses in that subject in order to acquire 
not only academic, but also professional, culture. 
This peculiarly intimate relationship of the edu- 
cation with the arts department, a relationship 



COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES 131 

not enjoyed so largely by other professional de- 
partments, is understood none too well. It, there- 
fore, seems expedient to say with emphasis that 
the proper organization of a department of edu- 
cation makes ample provision for the prosecution 
of academic courses as no small portion of the 
teacher's professional equipment. 

It may seem idle to suggest that the strictly 
professional courses should bear the unmistakable 
stamp of university thoroughness ; but occasion- 
ally one hears, even from unsuspected sources, 
that these courses are wanting in more than one 
vital particular. For example, President Ament, 
of the State Normal School in Warrensburg, Mis- 
souri, in an address delivered before the Southern 
Educational Association in November, 1905, thus 
delivered himself of rather positive convictions 
concerning pedagogy in American universities : 

"Barring, possibly, the work of Stanley Hall, at 
Clark University, little or no real university work 
in education has been done in our country. The work 
at Columbia University is too much on the order of 
the normal school to measure up to the standard 
we have in mind. The departments of education in 
some of our universities are sorry affairs. They deal 
out a sort of quasi-educational philosophy, tinctured 
with a mild infusion of pedagogy of very doubtful 
value, doing on the whole work far inferior to that of 
our best normal schools. I do not know what De- 
Garmo is doing at Cornell, but I believe, if his hands 
are not tied, he will eventually create a university 



132 DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION IN 

faculty of education that will accomplish work in this 
greatest and most serviceable of all departments that 
will measure up to university requirements — a faculty 
under whom experienced teachers could study with 
real profit — a faculty whose publications would be 
sought by thinkers throughout the educational field. 
As students in such a department none but experienced 
teachers or normal graduates should be admitted." ^^ 

Though President Ament's verdict as to peda- 
gogy in our universities may be open to drastic 
criticism, yet his declaration as to the insufficiency 
and inefficiency of our work would be endorsed by 
not a few people to-day connected with American 
institutions of learning. Our best reply to such 
attacks is to see to it that our education courses 
"make good." 

Somewhat foreign to this discussion is the ques- 
tion of what professional courses should be offered 
to education students, and what ones should be 
required of them. This question is of sufficient 
magnitude and importance to be the theme for a 
separate paper to be discussed by this associa- 
tion. Let me dismiss the question here by calling 
attention to what is reported from many quar- 
ters as a great defect in our education work, i. e., 
the failure to furnish opportunities for system- 
atic observation and practice under competent 
supervision. Dr. Frank McINIurry, in answer 
to question 6 of the questionnaire makes a special 

IS Proceedings of the Southern Educational Association, 
for 1905, pp. 114-115. 



COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES 133 

plea for the doctrine that, in education, training 
enters as a necessary element, a view held by 
Aristotle and by Plutarch when they maintained 
that, in human development, the three factors, 
nature, habit, and reason, are to be taken into 
account. 

The academic attainments to be exacted of the 
candidate for entrance into the education depart- 
ment are yet within the region of debate. The 
University of the City of New York would make a 
Bachelor's degree the prerequisite, which is, es- 
sentially, Prussia's policy concerning teachers of 
secondary schools. I am convinced, however, 
that, if this be the ideally correct policy, Ameri- 
can universities, particularly those under state 
control, are not yet ready for its inauguration. 
Our graduate departments are still in their in- 
fancy, and the number of graduate students is 
small. The task before the state university to- 
day is to give to the country annually many 
teachers qualified for high-school positions, for 
principalships, and for superintendencies of 
schools, and successful in a superlative degree 
would be the accomplishment of that task if only 
education graduates of the bachelor's rank were 
employed in those positions. 

By some, including Professor Hill, of Missouri 
University, and Professor Bennett, of the Louisi- 
ana State University, it is believed wise to admit 
freshman students to education courses. Still 
others are of the opinion, which is the prevailing 



134 DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION IN 

one, that only students of junior standing or 
higher should be permitted to enter upon the study 
of education. There is not wanting argument 
in behalf of each of these views ; but the matter 
is yet among the many educational problems that 
are awaiting solution. 

Again, what degree or degrees should be 
granted by the department of education, is one of 
the vexing questions invariably arising when ef- 
fort Is made to formulate regulations which des- 
ignate and control the functions and relationships 
of that department. It has already been pointed 
out that uniformity as to the bachelor's degree to 
be conferred upon education students does not ob- 
tain. In some institutions the Bachelor of Arts 
degree is bestowed ; in other universities Bachelor 
of Arts in Education, Bachelor of Science, Bach- 
elor of Science in Education, Bachelor of Peda- 
gogy, Bachelor of Education, and Licentiate of 
Instruction, respectively, are the badges signif- 
icant of the teacher's professional culture. 
Which of these degrees, if any of them, is to be 
preferred.'' 

In answer let us eliminate at once from the dis- 
cussion the contention, not infrequently made, 
that the whole degree-granting system should be 
abolished. That system, right or wrong, is thor- 
oughly engrafted upon university organization, 
and its overthrow is a matter of concern only to 
minds that revel in the region of pure thinking. 



COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES 135 

Another elimination, it seems reasonable, should 
be made, viz. : that no purely academic degree 
should be shared by the arts department with a 
professional department. This second elimination 
is, of course, debatable ; but, taking the situation 
as it is to-day, it seems the part of practical wis- 
dom to freely admit that, though the boundary 
line between academic and professional culture is, 
at least, variable and, at times, indistinct, aca- 
demic degrees belong only to the college of arts, 
which, it is commonly believed, functions for the 
sake of general culture. The conclusion, there- 
fore, is unavoidable that a degree having pro- 
fessional significance be set aside for edu- 
cation students. Because of the intimate re- 
lations existing between the education depart- 
ment of the college of arts, to which reference 
was made above, because of the fact that edu- 
cation courses, certainly in the main, may 
themselves well be considered as arts courses, 
and because of the additional fact, that by far 
the greater portion of the teacher's professional 
education is along academic lines, it is not unrea- 
sonable to grant to the teacher a degree in which 
the term arts should be included. The opinion, 
however, has already been advanced that a pro- 
fessional term should likewise characterize the de- 
gree. It is, therefore, recommended that the de- 
gree of Bachelor of Arts in Education would 
fairly represent the two elements of culture, aca- 



136 DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION IN 

demic and professional. Unquestionably the 
tendency in the American college world is toward 
a single Bachelor's degree for academic students, 
that is, the degree of Bachelor of Arts, which, in 
the English-speaking Avorld, has long been the 
badge signifying a liberal education. It is for 
this reason that the degree of Bachelor of Arts 
in Education is to be preferred to Bachelor of 
Science in Education. 

Lack of time forbids a discussion of the ad- 
vanced degrees that should be conferred upon edu- 
cation students. Reasons for favoring the de- 
grees of Master of Arts and Doctor of Philoso- 
phy, and others, equally valid, perhaps, in behalf 
of Master of Arts in Education and Doctor of 
Education, could easily be found. The question, 
however, is passed up for consideration, if it be 
deemed advisable, at the approaching meeting of 
our society. 

One other matter, which I shall scarcely more 
than mention, is that all students seeking prepara- 
tion for teaching be required to elect their courses 
in conference with some member of the education 
faculty. It would be advisable, in fact, that even 
a freshman whose intention it is to become a 
teacher, should elect his entire college course with 
the advice and consent of the department of edu- 
cation. This policy now obtains in The Univer- 
sity of Texas. 

In the foregoing discussion no attempt has been 



COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES 137 

made to define the relations which a school of edu- 
cation should bear to other schools and to the va- 
rious departments, or colleges, of the university. 
To determine such relations would be exceedingly 
easy, indeed. There is little, if any, doubt that 
under such conditions, education should be con- 
sidered as one of the arts, and therefore should 
have such standing as is accorded any other of 
the arts schools. Though the argument herein- 
before submitted, has been, I trust, sufficiently 
clear and ample to show that organization 
as a school is, under the present circumstances, 
neither wise nor just, yet local conditions may, 
of necessity, at times dictate such organi- 
zation. Where only one professor of education 
can be employed, it is beyond reason to expect 
him to conduct the minimum number of courses 
which should be required of all students as- 
piring to graduation from the education depart- 
ment. 

To recapitulate: In the foregoing discussion 
attempt has been made to establish these general 
propositions : 

(1) The education work in the unversity should 
be organized as a department coordinate with 
other professional departments. 

(2) The education department's requirements 
for admission and graduation should, at least, 
not fall below similar requirements in other de- 
partments. 



138 DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION IN 

(3) Both the academic and the professional 
work required of educational students should 
be respectable as to quantity and quality. 

(4) The Bachelor's degree to be conferred by 
the department of education should be the Bach- 
elor of Arts in Education. 

(5) The university courses of all prospective 
teachers should be chosen under the direction of 
the department of education. 

A vi^ord now, in conclusion, as to the future of 
our work. While the world is gradually coming 
to the appreciation of the great truth, that edu- 
cation is conscious evolution, it must be the one 
comprehensive purpose of the university move- 
ment for the professional education of teachers 
to give emphasis to the conscious, or voluntary, 
element in the process. That movement, in order 
to deserve and to secure the most liberal encour- 
agement, should not strive to erect colossal joss- 
houses for the idolatrous worship of pedagogy ; it 
should not be the means of encouraging profes- 
sional phariseeism among teachers ; and it should 
not seek to establish organizations conspicuous on 
account of merely external proportions. On the 
contrary, it should clearly demonstrate its con- 
secration to the twin causes of genuine learning 
and rational teaching; building upon the wisdom 
of the past and conserving that of the present, it 
should extend modestly, but surely, the confines 
of the knowledge of education ; and, finally, it 



COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES 139 

should contribute its reasonable service in the 
working of what seems to be the will of God in 
the spiritual disenthralment of our modern dem- 
ocratic society. 



VII 



CONTRIBUTIONS OF WILLIAM TORREY 

HARRIS TO THE DEVELOPMENT OF 

EDUCATION IN AMERICA ^ 

Within the short time-limit assigned to this 
paper, it is impossible to treat, in an adequate 
manner, the educational contributions of the man 
in whose honor we are assembled. Your attention 
is, therefore, invited to a brief discussion of only 
three importants phases of a life, all of which, it 
may be truthfully said, was dedicated to the cause 
of education. 

I. PROFESSIONAL STUDY OF EDUCATION 
The first precious gift which Dr. Harris laid 
upon the educational altar was a continuous, con- 
scientious, thorough, scientific, and philosophic 
study of the profession of teaching. More than 
any other man of his generation did he have first- 
hand acquaintance with the various phases of edu- 
cational theory and practice. There had been 
great educational leaders in this country before 
his day. Horace Mann, for example, had mani- 
fested great insight with respect to popular edu- 

1 A paper read January 25, 1910, in Austin, Texas, at a 
memorial service held in honor of W. T. Harris by the 
Students' Association of the Department of Education of 
The University of Texas. 

140 



DEVELOPMENT OF EDUCATION 141 

cation, and there had been men of marked ability 
in the college world ; but, unquestionably, Dr. 
Harris was our first truly great educational phi- 
losopher, the first American who, because of long 
and earnest study of the psychology, the history, 
and the philosophy of education, was prepared, 
and, therefore, was entitled, to speak with such 
confidence as was enjoyed by none of his prede- 
cessors, in this country and by exceedingly few, 
if any, of his contemporaries. When we remem- 
ber that, sometimes, even where least expected, 
there is entertained the belief that for the teacher 
no professional study of education whatever is 
necessary, and when we not infrequently hear the 
contention that the completion of three or four 
more or less elementary and introductory courses 
in the study of education is all-sufficient, we have 
all the greater admiration for him who demon- 
strated the worth and the wisdom of life-long de- 
votion to a subject so intimately connected with 
the progress of the school and the welfare of the 
race. 

It was by means of his philosophic study of 
education that Dr. Harris attained remarkable 
insight into its several problems. Dissatisfied 
with partial views, he sought for the ultimate 
meanings of things, it being the universal alone 
with which he could be content. Accordingly, 
the narrow, one-sided aims often proposed for 
education by laymen or superficial educational 
amateurs, seem trifling in comparison with his view 



142 WILLIAM TORREY HARRIS AND 

upon the same subject. With him, education is 
a world-building process, whether considered from 
the standpoint of civilization or from the stand- 
point of the individual. With him, education has 
for its supreme end the elevation of the individual 
to the level of the species, or, in other words, the 
adjustment of the individual to his environment 
so that he may participate in the blessings, in the 
activities, and in the progress of the institutions 
into which he is born, and in which he is to live 
his physical and spiritual life. This elevation, 
however, is not to be accomplished by a mechan- 
ical, but by a self-active process, and is to lead 
to the self-determination of the individual.' Edu- 
cation, as Dr. Harris understood it, is distinctively 
a means of sociological evolution. He consid- 
ered it a truism that "man has two natures, one 
as animal, as individual, as passive product of 
heredity and of his physical environment, — and 
the other nature realized in institutions, as the 
family, civil society, the church, and the state." 
His splendid professional study likewise 
brought to him clearness, as well as breadth and 
depth, of thinking concerning the manifold means 
by which man is to accomplish the end in educa- 
tion. It was his ability to think into unity the 
great diversity of elements found in the complex 
problem that enabled him to evaluate in a master- 
ful way the culture-materials for the elementary 
school, for the secondary school, for the college, 
and for the university, and that gave him the 



DEVELOPMENT OF EDUCATION 143 

power to designate, without difficulty, the respec- 
tive functions of the traditional studies, as well as 
the newer ones, including object lessons, the nat- 
ural sciences, modern languages, and vocational 
subjects. It is not surprising that this extremely 
delicate and difficult task could be so easily ac- 
complished by him, for he was accustomed for 
years and years to commune with such choice 
spirits as Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Comenius, 
Fichte, Rousseau, Kant, Herbart, Hegel, and 
Rosenkranz, and he had, thereby, endowed him- 
self with the wisdom of the centuries. This train- 
ing enabled him, as Emerson would say, "to re- 
sist the usurpation of particulars, to penetrate 
to the catholic sense of things, to disregard what 
the mere moment might dictate, and to listen for 
what the years and the centuries might say." ^ 

Again, it was his splendid professional study 
that led him to adopt sane theories concerning 
problems relating to professional education, in- 
cluding the professional education of the teacher. 
From this same source he was qualified to speak 
convincingly concerning rational method in in- 
struction, in school management, and in the larger 
field of school administration and supervision. 

The one comprehensive result of his really mar- 
velous investigation of educational problems, and 
that which unified his thinking into a consistent 
whole, was an unconquerable faith that education, 
in its broadest sense, is the great agency by which 

2 Emerson's "Essay on Montaigne," last two paragraphs. 



lU WILLIAM TORREY HARRIS AND 

the amelioration of the race and its salvation from 
ignorance and superstition and poverty and im- 
morality and crime are to be achieved. He be- 
lieved, with Emerson, that "our education should 
be brave and preventive ; that politics is an after- 
work, a poor patching; that we are always a lit- 
tle late; that the evil is done, the law is passed, 
and we begin the uphill agitation for the repeal 
of that of which we ought to have prevented the 
enacting ; that we shall one day learn to supersede 
politics by education ; that what we call our root- 
and-branch reforms of slavery, war, gambling, 
and intemperance, is only medicating the symp- 
toms ; that we must begin higher up, namely, in 
Education." ^ 

II. ADDRESSES AND WRITINGS 

The second great contribution of Dr. Harris 
to educational history consists of books and arti- 
cles which he wrote and of addresses which he de- 
livered. His activities in these directions were 
extraordinary with respect to quantity, to qual- 
ity, and to the range of subjects treated. A 
bibliography of his writings prepared by Henry 
Ridgely Evans and published in the Report of 
the United States Commissioner of Education for 
1907, contains 479 different titles. The reading 
of this bibliography alone would consume more 
time than has been set apart for the exercises of 
the evening. 

3 From Emerson's "Essay on Culture." 



DEVELOPMENT OF EDUCATION 145 

Among the books which he wrote are Hegel's 
"Logic," which is a critical exposition of the 
genesis of the categories of the mind, and "Psy- 
chologic Foundations of Education," in the 
thirty-nine chapters of which the author sets 
forth the psychological explanation of the more 
important educational factors in civilization and 
its schools. In the 70's of the Nineteenth Cen- 
tury, in collaboration with Supt. A. J. Rickoff of 
Cleveland and Professor Mark Bailey of Yale 
University, he published a valuable series of 
readers for use in the elementary schools ; for a 
number of years before his death he was editor of 
Webster's "International Dictionary" ; for more 
than twenty years from 1867 he was editor of 
The Journal of Speculative Philosophi/, and was 
the chief contributor to its columns. 

As superintendent of the public schools of St. 
Louis he prepared thirteen annual reports that 
established his reputation as an educational 
thinker of the highest rank. On account of these 
reports the French government conferred upon 
him the honorary titles of "Officer of the Acad- 
emy" and "Officer of Public Instruction." Many 
reforms which have, in recent years, found their 
way into the public schools throughout the coun- 
try were first ably advocated in these reports. 
From 1889 to 1906 he was at the head of the 
United States Bureau of Education, submitting 
its annual report, which commanded the respect 
and admiration of the educational public through- 



146 WILLIAM TORREY HARRIS AND 

out the world. For many years he was the editor 
of the "International Education Series," pub- 
lished by the Appletons, writing for each volume 
of the Series a preface and sometimes an intro- 
duction, the preface and introduction in more than 
one instance being of greater worth than the con- 
tents of the work itself. 

In hundreds of articles which he wrote were 
discussed the educational questions that have been 
raised in the last half-century, a period which 
seemed to devote itself to educational inquiry and 
criticism. Here are some titles, taken almost at 
random: "Text-books: Their Use and Abuse," 
"The Defect in the Graded School System," 
"Pestalozzinism," "Coeducation of the Sexes," 
"Industrial Education," "The Value of Each 
Branch of Study in Giving Man the Mastery of 
His Instrumentalities," "Libraries," "Oral In- 
struction: Prescription of Its Province in Educa- 
tion," "Art Instruction," "Grammar as an Intel- 
lectual Culture Study," "A Brief for Latin," 
"The Education of Women," "The High School," 
"Promotion and Classification of Pupils," "A Na- 
tional University," "School Hygiene," "Moral 
Education," "Culture and Discipline versus In- 
formation and Dexterity," "The Kindergarten: 
Its Philosophy," "On the Nature of Play," "Peda- 
gogics as a Province of Education," "Thoughts 
on the History of Education," "The Place of the 
Study of Latin and Greek in Modern Education," 
"Educational Psychology," "Elective Studies," 



DEVELOPMENT OF EDUCATION 147 

"The Church, the State, and the School," "Chairs 
of Pedagogics," "The Modern Growth of Cities 
and the Education Demanded Thereby," "Com- 
pulsory Education in Relation to Crime and So- 
cial Morals," "Art Education the True Industrial 
Education," "University and School Extension," 
"Vocation versus Culture, or the Two Aspects of 
Education," "Grading in Country Schools," "Sim- 
plified Spelling," "Curriculum for Secondary 
Schools," "Education for Negroes," "The Old 
Psychology versus the New," and "The Future of 
the Normal School." 

For many years Dr. Harris was the most con- 
spicuous and the most useful member of the Na- 
tional Education Association. The annual pro- 
ceedings of that organization were enriched by 
the papers which he read, as well as by the discus- 
sions in which he engaged and by the reports 
which he made. He was a member of the Com- 
mittee of Fifteen, serving as chairman of the Sub- 
Committee on the Correlation of Studies. The 
report of this Sub-Committee, which was, of 
course, written by himself, is an epoch-making 
contribution to educational literature, and has, 
perhaps, had more to do than any other single 
publication with the rationalizing of pedagogic 
thinking concerning the course of study. To 
some of the minor details of that report it is be- 
lieved by some reputable school men that valid ob- 
jections can be offered; but the fundamental con- 
tentions have not been successfully questioned, and 



148 WILLIAM TORREY HARRIS AND 

there is every reason for believing that this report 
will become one of the educational classics of 
America. 

Dr. Harris, furthermore, rendered conspicuous 
service as a member of the Committee on Rural 
Schools, serving as chairman, and Avriting the re- 
port of the Sub-Committee on Instruction and 
Discipline. Here, again, he manifested his abil- 
ity as an educational leader, for he submitted a 
clear and cogent presentation of rural educational 
reforms which relate to instruction and to the 
course of study, and which have been receiving 
the serious consideration of the states of the Amer- 
ican Union since the publication of that report in 
1897. 

Of the addresses which he delivered before edu- 
cational, philosophic, literary, penological, and 
other societies, it may be said that none was the 
result of immature reflection ; that each of the ad- 
dresses, though brief in compass, was comprehen- 
sive in outline and unified in structure. It is re- 
markable that the number of these addresses was 
so great ; but the superior quality of their content 
is even more remarkable. 

III. EXECUTIVE WORK 

A third contribution made by Dr. Harris to 
educational progress was his splendid service in 
the realm of educational administration and su- 
pervision. While he was blessed with great in- 



DEVELOPMENT OF EDUCATION 149 

formation and insight gained by professional 
stud}', and while he was unusually gifted with 
ability to present, by voice and by pen, the results 
of that study, yet, philosopher though he was, he, 
like Miles Standish, could both write and fight. 
In the practical realm of realizing educational 
ideals his talents were as conspicuous as in the 
realms of the student and of the author. During 
the thirteen years he was superintendent of 
schools in St. Louis, those schools were organized 
into a really efficient, unified system, and came to 
occupy first rank among the city schools of the 
nation. It was largely through the labors which 
he performed and directed that the high school, 
whose very existence had frequently been in dan- 
ger, was established upon a permanent founda- 
tion ; that the kindergarten was incorporated into 
the system of public schools ; that the city normal 
school became a really serviceable agent of prog- 
ress ; that the interval of promotion was short- 
ened, thus breaking up the compulsory lock-step 
movement of pupils ; that the elementary school 
and its teacher attained dignity and respect ; that 
the school principal became a responsible and use- 
ful factor in school administration and supervi- 
sion ; that problems relating to school buildings 
came to be considered worthy of scientific treat- 
ment, and that the profession of school architec- 
ture came to be regarded with favor by the public 
at large ; that physical education received such 
approval as to be deemed an indispensable element 



150 WILLIAM TORREY HARRIS AND 

in the public school system ; that the school 
library was established as an important adjunct 
to other instructional forces ; that the movement 
to dignify the office of the school trustee and to 
select him because of his honesty, his competency, 
and his interest in educational affairs, grew in 
vigor and in popular favor ; and that militant 
public opinion was aroused in behalf of the several 
phases of school improvement. 

In an article which he contributed to the Edu- 
cational Review in 1892 he accurately and ade- 
quately described the functions of the ideal school 
superintendent, functions which he himself had 
discharged with rare fidelity and success. Here 
is the concluding and summarizing paragraph of 
that article: 

"The efficient superintendent, therefore, sets into 
working order three educative influences to support 
the one great work of education in the school system: 
namely, an educative influence in wise measures and 
correct insight, for members of the school board; 
second, an educative influence, resulting in insight 
into methods, and a growth in personal self-control, 
and besides these a culture in literature and art and 
science, for the teachers; thirdly, for the community, 
an enlightened public opinion which knows what the 
schools are actually doing, and can intelligently ex- 
plain merits and defects, and tell what changes are 
desirable for onward progress." * 

When, in 1889, President Harrison appointed 
^Educational Review, 3:172. 



DEVELOPMENT OF EDUCATION 151 

Dr. Harris United States Commissioner of Edu- 
cation, school men throughout the country most 
emphatically approved the choice, and prophesied 
that great things would be accomplished by the 
new Commissioner. In the seventeen years of 
service in that office, he more than fulfilled the 
prophecies made when he entered upon its labors. 
His protracted, thoughtful study of professional 
problems, his sharing with his fellowmcn by means 
of oral and written discourse the fruits of that 
study, and his practical administration of the af- 
fairs of a great city school system, had equipped 
him admirably for the larger contributions he was 
to make to educational history. The annual re- 
ports published during his commissionership are 
positive and enduring evidence that the work of 
the Bureau properly administered is valuable to 
the nation, contributing in high degree to that 
unification which is essential to our educational 
progress. These reports furnish abundant testi- 
mony that Dr. Harris's labors in connection with 
the Bureau were eminently successful, for, in 
Washington, as in St. Louis, he manifested the 
rare combination of philosophical insight and 
practical executive power. It would be difficult 
to overestimate the worth of these reports, for, 
in a very significant sense, they have become a 
kind of educational clearing house, not only for 
the United States, but also for the civilized world. 
It was an easy matter for Dr. Harris to dis- 
charge the duties of a national office, for neither 



152 WILLIAM TORREY HARRIS AND 

provincialism nor intolerance could find a resting 
place in his soul. He was greatly concerned with 
the promotion of educational progress in the 
North, in the East, in the West, and especially in 
the South, with whose people he sympathized in 
their efforts to solve their peculiarly difficult 
problems in education. In one of his addresses, 
delivered in a national congress of education, he 
referred to the struggles of the South, remarking 
that the percentage of its population attending 
school is very large, as large as that of Saxony, 
even, and then he adds that "this is a wonderful 
showing for the wisdom and self-sacrifice of the 
Southern people, who are, indeed, building a New 
South, with the school as its cornerstone." 

IV. CONCLUSION 

Many and varied were Dr. Harris's contribu- 
tions in the realms of professional study, produc- 
tive authorship, and school administration. In 
each realm he was remarkably efficient in service, 
and, what is rarer still, was entirely free from 
officiousness or offensiveness in performance. 
The latter especially charming attribute of his 
personality was, no doubt, born of the fact that, 
as Plato would say, "He had tasted how sweet and 
blessed a possession philosophy is," and had, ac- 
cordingly, become a thoroughly just man, a just 
man being one — again to quote from Plato — who 
"does not permit the several elements within him 
to meddle with one another, or any of them to do 



DEVELOPMENT OF EDUCATION 153 

the work of others ; but he sets in order his own 
inner life, and is his own master, and at peace 
with himself; and, when he has bound together 
the three principles within . . . and is no 
longer many, but has become one entirely tem- 
perate and perfectly adjusted nature, then he will 
begin to act, if he is to act, whether in a matter 
of property or in the treatment of the body or 
some affair of politics or private business ; in all 
of which cases he will think and call just and good 
action that which preserves and cooperates with 
this condition, and the knowledge which presides 
over this, wisdom; and unjust action that which 
at any time destroys this, and the opinion which 
presides over unjust action, ignorance." ^ 

When the Carnegie Foundation conferred upon 
Dr. Harris, in 1906, the highest retiring allow- 
ance permitted by its rules, an annual income of 
three thousand dollars, it was an honor most 
worthily bestowed, because his was a truly great 
spirit, accomplishing great things in a great way, 
and because the contributions of his life-work con- 
stitute an imperishable inheritance of American 
education. 

s Plato's "Republic," 443. 



VIII 

THE CLUB WOMAN AND THE DEVELOP- 
MENT OF EDUCATIONAL PUBLIC 
OPINION 1 

Being the one institution charged directly with 
the development of the rising generation, the 
school is a most powerful agency in the protec- 
tion and the promotion of individual and institu- 
tional welfare. It is, therefore, of priceless value, 
and every citizen is under bond to maintain, by 
word and by deed, in private and in public, its 
integrity and usefulness. While women are not 
armed with the ballot in Texas, yet they con- 
tribute in no small degree to the creation and de- 
velopment of public opinion. In matters pertain- 
ing to the education of youth, they are especially 
influential. They can have no greater duty, and 
can obtain no greater privilege than to exercise 
continuously and earnestly a strong and whole- 
some influence in behalf of the very best educa- 
tional advantages it is possible to obtain. It is 
the purpose of this paper to discuss some phases 
of school work in which this influence can be well 
directed. 

1. The physical conditions under which chil- 

1 Read in Houston, Texas, November 17, 1904, before the 
Texas Federation of Women's Clubs. 
154 



EDUCATIONAL PUBLIC OPINION 155 

dren are to spend their school life should he sani- 
tary, comfortable, and attractive. 

Clean, healthful, beautiful buildings and 
grounds have desirable effects not only upon the 
body of the child, but also upon the mind and 
character. The Greeks of old had greater in- 
sight with respect to this matter than do many 
people living in modern times. By careful at- 
tention to the needs of the growing body such a 
race of men and women were developed in ancient 
Greece as have not been surpassed through all the 
centuries that have followed. They believed, fur- 
thermore, in surrounding the young with works 
of art stimulating to the healthful imagination. 
In Plato's "Republic," which sets forth an ideal 
scheme of education, we read: 

"We would not have our guardians grow up amid 
images of moral deformity, as in some noxious pas- 
ture, and there browse and feed upon many a bane- 
ful herb and flower, day by day, little by little, until 
they silently gather a mass of festering corruption in 
their own souls. Let our artists rather be those who 
are gifted to discern the true nature of beauty and 
grace. Then will our youth dwell in a land of health 
amid fair sights and sounds ; and beauty, tlie effluence 
of fair works, will meet the sense like a breeze and 
insensibly draw the soul, even in childhood, into har- 
mony with the beauty of reason." 

If our women, appreciating the philosophy of 
Plato's words, should mold public opinion in every 



166 THE CLUB WOMAN AND 

community In this state in accordance therewith, 
in no city, town, or hamlet in all this common- 
wealth would there be found a schoolhouse that is 
a caricature upon architecture and that is less in- 
viting than the building in which criminals are 
confined. 

2. If the priceless blessings of good schools are 
to he enjoyed hy our children, only competent 
teachers should he employed to give them instruc- 
tion. 

The teacher who does not represent in his own 
person the ideals of true manhood is incapable 
of leading younger people to appreciate those 
ideals. While it is necessary that the teacher be 
a scholar, he must first be possessed of the man- 
ners, as well as the higher attributes, of the well- 
bred gentleman. But scholarship also is impera- 
tive. Certainly no one can teach what he him- 
self does not know. It is a safe rule to adopt that 
the teacher be at least four years in advance of 
the pupils he is to teach. No teacher, for exam- 
ple, should be employed in a high school who has 
not the training equivalent to that to be derived 
from the satisfactory completion of courses of 
study leading to graduation from college. Fur- 
thermore, a truly qualified teacher is one who is 
familiar with, and is vitally interested in, the 
problems of his own profession, and consequently 
with the literature relating to that profession. 
He is daily studying these problems, and is be- 
coming more and more familiar with them, not 



EDUCATIONAL PUBLIC OPINION 157 

only at first hands, but also through the thought 
of the leaders in education. He spends his money 
in order that he may obtain professional growth. 
His long vacations are not consumed in absolute 
idleness or in flitting from watering place to 
mountain resort. At least a portion of every 
summer he spends in study in some institution 
which offers opportunity for professional advance- 
ment. His salary may be small ; but he wisely 
invests a portion of it in order that he may become 
a larger man, feeling assured that large salaries 
are never found hunting for small men. 

The truly professional teacher, again, in the 
securing and holding of official positions, is not 
depending upon political pull, upon membership 
in any religious denomination, upon ties of con- 
sanguinity or affinity, or upon any form of graft, 
however veiled or specious. He modestly submits 
upon proper occasions his personal and profes- 
sional merits, and he is willing to be judged by 
them, and them alone. This is the very essence 
of honesty and fair dealing. If we wish our chil- 
dren to have these qualities indelibly stamped 
upon their lives, we should strenuously insist that 
the men and women who teach them should be 
reasonably reputable guides with respect to cul- 
ture and character. 

This, then, is the second lesson of the evening: 
The women of this Federation should have an 
abiding interest in developing in their several 
communities a strong and vigorous sentiment in 



158 THE CLUB WOMAN AND 

behalf of the selection and retention of teachers 
upon only one basis, the basis of merit. 

3. The third lesson is like unto the second. 
The school superintendent should have all the 
qualifications of the teacher, and some one has 
said that he should have these qualifications raised 
to the second power. 

The superintendent of schools is, in a large de- 
gree, the teacher of teachers. If he be a weak 
man, a time-server, a political trimmer, no one 
should be surprised if the principals and teachers 
under his supervision manifest similar weaknesses. 
The leader in any organization invariably stamps 
his own qualities of mind and heart upon its every 
department. In every community, perhaps, the 
greatest public interest is its system of schools. 
The head of that system should be a man who 
devotes himself exclusively to the duties of his 
office. Those duties being of an educational char- 
acter, he should be distinguished because of his 
discharge of educational functions. These func- 
tions are so numerous and so complex that they 
will require all the time and all the talent of the 
most gifted of men. To discharge them faith- 
fully and acceptably requires a man who is not an 
expert as a mere job-holder, a skilled manipulator 
of political methods, but one by whose worthy 
leadership in educational affairs the opportunities 
for the development of sturdy character will, year 
by year, be multiplied in every school under hisi 
supervision. In him every teacher will find a 



EDUCATIONAL PUBLIC OPINION 159 

trusted counselor and friend, every parent a ju- 
dicious adviser, and every child a courageous de- 
fender of his rights. There is connected with the 
public service no officer in whom the women of this 
organization should have a more intelligent con- 
cern. 

4. The members of the board of trustees in 
every school district should be composed of intelli- 
gent, patriotic, and prudent men. 

The law very wisely forbids the payment of a 
salary to a school trustee. It is the theory in 
America that everywhere will be found capable 
and honorable men who are sufficiently interested 
in the schools to give their services as trustees 
without financial compensation. It is the theory, 
also, that these trustees shall be trustees in fact, 
and not in name only. Should the trustee of an 
estate of a deceased person prove recreant to his 
trust, adequate penalties are fixed by law. It is 
especially disreputable for a man to be dishonest, 
or even careless, in the management of property 
interests belonging to others. If anything, it is 
still more disreputable for the trustee of a school, 
because of the seductive blandishments of grafters 
of greater or less venality, or because of the influ- 
ence of powerful social, sectarian, or political 
pulls, to barter away the spiritual rights of the 
children of his community. One of the great 
rights of every child is that he is entitled to the 
best possible instruction obtainable. The selec- 
tion of the teacher who is to give that instruction 



160 THE CLUB WOMAN AND 

is in the hands of the trustee, who has taken oath 
that he will properly administer the trust imposed 
in him. A trustee mindful of his obligation will 
not favor the system of the spoilsman, but will 
adopt the policy recommended a year ago in the 
report to his school trustees by Superintendent 
S. M. N. Marrs of Terrell, Texas. From Super- 
intendent Marrs' report these extracts are taken: 

"The statement is frequently made, 'Everything else 
being equal, I believe in employing our own grad- 
uates to teach in our schools.' I know that every 
one of you, as a member of the school board, endorses 
this statement fully. But when you have teachers of 
many years' experience, holding college or normal 
school diplomas, or life certificates, who have been 
successful in their work, make application for posi- 
tions in our schools, are our graduates with a few 
months' experience, and holding second-grade county 
certificates, or possibly first-grade certificates, their 
equals ? I would not detract one iota from the suc- 
cessful work of those of our teachers who, by their 
genial personality and indomitable energy, have given 
such entire satisfaction; but 1 would remind them 
that progress should be their watchword, and that 
they should take advantage of every opportunity to 
place themselves upon an equality with other teachers 
who have spent some of the best years of their lives 
in preparation for the noble duties of the profession. 
And when this is done, when our graduates go to the 
normal schools and the colleges, and return to us upon 
an equal 'footing with other teachers, holding their 
diplomas, earned by hard study and close application. 



EDUCATIONAL PUBLIC OPINION 161 

I am very sure they will receive favorable consider- 
ation and be given an opportunity to prove whether 
or not they possess the other elements of the success- 
ful teacher. 

"So long as you fail to demand of your home 
teachers the same preparation you require of those 
from a distance, you contribute to their negligence in 
this respect, and instead of your leniency's being a 
kindness, it becomes a real injury." 

There is but one single question for the trustee 
to ask if he wishes to fulfill the obligations of his 
position, and that question is, in every instance, 
What action on my part is demanded by the best 
interests of the children for whom the schools 
have been established and for whom they should be 
conducted? To answer this question correctly re- 
quires a greater degree of intelligence than some 
people imagine, and a higher degree of honesty 
than some men have inherited or attained. The 
good women, as well as the good men, in every 
community certainly love their children and 
should, therefore, find it easy to agree to elect 
to membership upon the board of school trustees 
only such men as clearly demonstrate intellectual 
and moral fitness therefor. 

It stands to reason, from what has just now 
been said, that the board of trustees should be di- 
vorced from partisan politics. The school is an 
institution in whose blessings the children of peo- 
ple of all shades of political belief have a right to 
share. It is the only institution upon which all 



162 THE CLUB WOMAN AND 

parties can certainly unite. Republicans, Demo- 
crats, Populists, Mugwumps, Socialists, all 
are interested in the education of their chil- 
dren. It would certainly be unrighteous and un- 
American to conduct such an institution along 
narrow political lines. Time forbids an extended 
discussion of this point ; but I cannot forbear 
quoting these sentences, taken from an address 
made last July by Andrew S. Draper, Commis- 
sioner of Education of the State of New York: 

"It seems to be accepted all around that 'politics/ 
or partisan influences of any kind, operating with the 
dark lantern, shall be met with resentment, and that 
with emphasis. That is something; but it is far from 
all. We not only do not want men and women in the 
educational organization simply because they have won 
the gratitude and support of some other kind of or- 
ganization which is doubtless right enough in its way; 
but we want men and women who have taste and train- 
ing which may be strikingly useful in the upbuilding 
of an educational organization." 

In Texas, school affairs have been managed 
with singular freedom from corruption and de- 
bauchery. The really vicious ultra-partisan 
management of educational interests has been 
rare in this state ; but in these days, when, in 
many parts of our country, the spoilsman and the 
grafter are searching for every possible oppor- 
tunity to ply their nefarious practices, it is in- 
cumbent upon us to fix, once for all, if possible, 



EDUCATIONAL PUBLIC OPINION 163 

uncompromising faith in the doctrine that the 
schools shall be run for the benefit of our children, 
and for their benefit alone. It should be a mat- 
ter of great pride to every citizen of Texas that 
the Regents of the University, ever since it was 
founded twenty-one years ago, have kept in mind 
the fact that it is their sole function as Regents 
to administer a great educational trust, and that 
they have, therefore, not been subservient to any 
other than educational influences. They may, at 
times, have been mistaken in their judgments ; but 
these have been mistakes incident to the fallibility 
of human nature, and have been in no sense crimes 
committed with malice aforethought. 

In the work of quickening and strengthening 
public opinion in behalf of the proper administra- 
tion of our public schools, I am sure the members 
of the Texas Federation of Women's Clubs can 
render valiant and valued service. Any form of 
public service is sure to fail of greatest success 
whenever public interest is wanting. The club 
women undoubtedly have ways and means by 
which interest in educational questions can be kept 
vigorously alive. The mothers' club has, in many 
places, been an effective agency in this direction. 
Far be it from me to speak with scant praise of 
its splendid service ; but I beg to suggest that it 
should be supplemented in every school district 
by the organization of an educational association, 
to include in its membership men, as well as 
women, an association to cooperate with teachers, 



164. THE CLUB WOMAN AND 

principals, superintendents, and school trustees in 
strengthening public opinion in behalf of better 
schools and better school facilities ; to study, 
really study, the conditions necessary to genuine 
progress ; and to assist generously and sanely in 
devising plans, and, when proper, in executing 
plans, to insure those conditions. It seems to me 
that it is intended by Providence that the educa- 
tion of children should be of equal concern to 
fathers and mothers. Surely we cannot expect 
that work to be in the highest degree successful 
if the masculine element of our population be 
practically excluded therefrom. Other means, for 
example the organization of fathers' clubs, to 
meet very seldom, will be suggested to your minds. 
But whatever plans may be adopted, surely here 
is a rich and a well-nigh unoccupied field of en- 
deavor in which results of inestimable value may 
be achieved by this Federation. To the most 
fruitful tillage of this field you are invited by 
every competent and faithful teacher and school 
officer in this state, as well as by every child 
whose powers of mind and heart are calling for 
favorable conditions of development. 

Finally, while club women are deserving of high- 
est commendation for their study of many of the 
difficult problems of our modern times, problems 
of domestic economy, of municipal politics, of 
state politics, of national politics, of world poli- 
tics, problems of dress, of social functions, of art, 
literature, history, philosophy, love, law, trade, 



EDUCATIONAL PUBLIC OPINION 165 

religion, etc, yet it is respectfully, but earnestly, 
urged that they should not fail to give liberally 
of their time and their talents to the consideration 
of another question, which is fundamental to 
questions of home, society, church and state. 
That question is. What shall be done to and for 
and with the child, by whose proper education 
the highest hopes of humanity are to be realized, 
and in whose life and advancement the brain and 
heart of womankind can be most effectively em- 
ployed? Should the club women in this state aid 
in the development of the doctrines that the phys- 
ical conditions about our schoolrooms should be 
wholesome and beautiful ; that the teachers of 
Texas children should be men and women of sound 
scholarship, high character, and real professional 
ability; that school superintendents should be 
educational leaders worthy of the cause they rep- 
resent, and that the trustees of our public schools 
should be men of unquestioned probity, generous 
insight, and commendable patriotism — I say, if 
the club women of this Federation should add 
their great influence to the promotion of these 
four fundamental doctrines, unborn generations 
of Texas children will have reason to bless your 
memory, the angels will hear the story of your 
good deeds, and the Lord of heaven and earth will 
know you every one by name. 



IX 



THE EDUCATION OF THE MODERN 
WOMAN 1 

In different ages of the world there have pre- 
vailed many varying and ofttinics contradictory 
opinions concerning the education of woman. 
Throughout the centuries she has been an inter- 
esting and also a more or less perplexing prob- 
lem ; but, as a latter-day cynic has confessed, "If 
woman makes all the trouble in life, it is woman 
who makes life worth all the trouble." Inas- 
much as her education has always been influenced 
by the sphere of her functions, we need not be 
surprised that, in her progress from the slavery 
by which she was fettered in the days of our sav- 
age forefathers to the time when she is coming 
to be recognized as an individual and as a co- 
equal with man, — I say we need not be surprised 
that her education throughout these long cen- 
turies has responded to many modifying influ- 
ences. 

In ancient Sparta, which was, at best, but an 
armed camp, great attention was necessarily paid 
to phj^sical development. Her free citizens were 

1 A commencement address delivered May 26, 1908, at 
Baylor Female College, Belton, Texas. 

166 



THE MODERN WOMAN 167 

to be so trained in bodily powers and in patri- 
otic virtues as to render them strong and willing 
defenders of the state. Literature, art, and 
philosophy were despised. These two great edu- 
cational aims, patriotism and physical power, were 
to be wrought out in the development of the 
women, as well as of the men. From infancy to 
womanhood the one dominant thought of their 
lives was that the mothers in Sparta were to give 
the state vigorous and hardy and loyal warriors. 
The Spartan woman had, comparatively speaking, 
little domestic life, her husband being the absolute 
creature of a state which was a perfect type of 
a highly communistic institution. The Spartan 
man, who, by law, was compelled to marry at the 
age of thirty years, spent his life in the service 
of his country, being prohibited from residing 
at the home of his wife, whom he was able to visit 
only by stealth. 

In Athens, respectable women led only domestic 
lives. We read in the famous funeral oration 
delivered by Pericles in honor of his countrymen 
that had perished during one year of the Pelopen- 
nesian War, these consoling words : 

"If I am to speak of womanly virtues to those of 
you who will henceforth be widows, let me sum them 
up in one short admonition: To a woman not to show 
more weakness than is natural to her sex, is a great 
glory, and not to be talked about for good or for 
evil among men." 



168 THE EDUCATION OF 

In Xenophon's "Economics" is given in detail 
the Athenian view concerning woman's functions 
and her education to fit her therefor. Living in 
accordance with that view she confined her talents 
to the discharge of domestic duties, the rearing 
of children, the oversight of servants, and the 
economic disbursement of the funds provided for 
tlic support of the family. It was only the 
woman without social standing that turned her 
attention to matters of politics or to those of any 
other character not closely related to the home. 
In the Golden Age of Greece, the immortal Fifth 
Century, all the respectable citizens of Athens 
would have held up their hands in holy horror, 
had there appeared in their midst a woman pos- 
sessed of the independence and intellectual quali- 
fications of many an American woman of the pres- 
ent day. In that classic city social functions 
were attended by men only. Woman had the 
honor and the pleasure of preparing banquets for 
her lord ; but she herself was conspicuously absent 
from the banqueting board. As she was set 
apart for strictly domestic functions, only do- 
mestic elements entered into the system by which 
she was educated. 

The futility of this educational regimen for 
women was understood by Plato, the greatest of 
the Greek philosophers. In that imperishable 
work, "The Republic," he described an ideal na- 
tion in which philosophers should be rulers, and 
in which wisdom, courage, temperance, and justice 



THE MODERN WOMAN 169 

should abound. In his Utopian state, education 
is to be the fundamental activity which is to in- 
sure the permanence and righteousness of govern- 
ment. His ideal education, which is to consist of 
physical, intellectual, and moral elements, is to 
be shared by men and women alike, his reason 
therefor being expressed as follows: 

"The same education which makes a man a good 
guardian will make a woman a good guardian, for 
their original nature is the same." 

In Rome somewhat greater freedom was en- 
joyed by woman than in Athens, and she exer- 
cised a greater influence upon man. The Roman 
matron has survived throughout the ages as a 
type of high-minded womanhood ; but the histor- 
ical record discloses the fact that, while higher 
education was organized and greatly developed 
for the male portion of the population of Rome, 
no provision in this direction existed for that 
other half of the population which belonged to 
the opposite sex. It is true that Musonius, who 
lived during the period of the Hellenized Roman 
education, favored the extension of the oppor- 
tunities of higher learning to women ; but he lived 
far in advance of his age, and his views were by 
no means popular. The prevailing opinion was 
that woman should be a home-keeper ; that, 
if she should visit philosophers, she would become 
bold and presuming ; that contact with other than 



170 THE EDUCATION OF 

domestic matters would cause her to abandon 
household occupations ; that she would live sur- 
rounded by men and engaged in philosophical and 
political discussions ; that, while she might learn 
to argue subtly and be an expert in analyzing 
syllogisms, she ought to be at home engaged in 
spinning or in some other necessary employment 
that would render her husband's home life satis- 
factory and agreeable. 

During the Middle Ages, when, on account of 
various influences, the secular learning of the old 
Greeks and Romans had well-nigh passed away, 
woman, in common with man, shared the darkness 
of the ignorance that prevailed. It was during 
these times that the ascetic, other-worldly view 
dominated both life and education. Aside from 
strictly domestic duties, only the nunnery opened 
its portals to women. The views which generally 
obtained are well represented in the advice given 
by St. Jerome to one of his widowed friends in- 
quiring of him as to the proper education of her 
daughter. This good man suggested a stern 
regimen of physical asceticism ; urging that the 
body be considered an enemy, to be subdued by 
fasting and by mortification of the flesh. The 
same monastic clement is prominent as to the intel- 
lectual and moral development which he approves. 
He advises that only the Bible be read and 
studied ; that the arts be tabooed ; that the daugh- 
ter never listen to musical instruments ; that she be 
kept in ignorance of the uses served by the flute 



THE MODERN WOMAN 171 

and the harp ; that she should not be found in 
the streets of the world, or in the gatherings and 
in the company of her kindred; that she is to live 
in retirement. She is not to feel more affection 
for one of her companions than for others. She 
is not to be allowed to speak with such an one in 
an undertone. In his opinion the most desirable 
place in which she could be brought up is in a 
cloister. Said this great church father; 

"If you will send us Paula, I will charge myself 
with being her master and nurse; I will give her my 
tenderest care. ... I shall be more renowned 
than Aristotle, since I shall instruct, not a mortal 
and perishable king, but an immortal spouse of the 
heavenly king." 

It is true that when the Feudal System arose, 
a somewhat different conception of the functions 
of woman obtained, and that the social element 
entered more largely into her life and into her 
education. She became more or less proficient in 
the forms of etiquette, and in poetry and music, 
as well as in religious and domestic duties ; but 
it must be remembered that this education was 
confined to a small percentage of the population, 
that is to say, to the families of the feudal barons. 

The feudalistic view is perhaps well expressed 
by the celebrated essayist, Montaigne, who lived 
in the Sixteenth Century, and whose chivalric gal- 
lantry led him to disbelieve in the development of 



17^ THE EDUCATION OF 

woman along rigorous lines of study. If she 
must study, however, he advised that she should 
study poetry, saying: 

"It is a wanton, crafty art, disguised ; all for pleas- 
ure, all for show, just as women are," 

Even Rousseau, tlie most vigorous of all the 
educational reformers of the world, and the au- 
thor of the most celebrated educational classics 
ever written, the "Emile," preaches the doctrine 
that the whole education of women should be 
relative to men ; that to please them, to be useful 
to them, to make themselves honored and loved by 
them, to educate the young, to care for the older, 
to advance them, to console them, to make life 
agreeable and sweet to them, — these are the du- 
ties of women in every age. He believed that a 
woman of culture is to be avoided like a pestilence, 
"for," says he, "she is the plague of her husband, 
her children, servants, — everybody." 

Richard Mulcastcr, who was the celebrated 
master of the Merchant Taylors' School in the 
Sixteenth Century, and who wrote a book con- 
cerning the theory and practice of education, rec- 
ommended that a woman should be perfected in 
"reading well, writing faire, singing sweete, and 
playing fine." These studies he considered as 
needful. More advanced studies he believed 
might be undertaken by women that are to be- 
come wives of leaders among men, but by him, 



THE MODERN WOMAN 173 

as by all his contemporaries, the idea that the 
higher education of woman should be primarily 
for her own sake, was not entertained. 

Probably the first great writer of education to 
set forth in unmistakable terms the doctrine of 
universal education for men and women alike was 
Comenius, the last bishop of the Moravian church. 
In his monumental work, "The Great Didactic," he 
gives these reasons why women should be allowed 
to engage in the pursuit of knowledge, advanced, 
as well as elementary: 

"They are endowed with equal sharpness of mind 
and capacity for knowledge (often with more than 
the opposite sex), and they are able to attain the high- 
est positions, since they have often been called by 
God himself to rule over nations, to give sound advice 
to kings and princes, to the study of medicine and of 
other things which benefit the human race, even to the 
office of prophesying and inveighing against priests 
and bishops. Why, therefore, should we admit them 
to the alphabet and afterwards drive them away from 
books? Do we fear their folly? The more we oc- 
cupy their thoughts, so much the less shall folly find 
a place." 

A thoroughly modern view, held by many of 
the more intellectual women, as well as by some 
of the more intellectual men of the present day, 
is thus expressed by the president of Bryn-Mawr 
College : 

"Women's education should be the same as men's. 



174 THE EDUCATION OF 

not only because there is, I believe, but one best edu- 
cation, but because men and women are to live and 
work together as comrades and dear friends and mar- 
ried friends and lovers; and because their effective- 
ness and happiness and the welfare of the generations 
to come after them will be vastly increased if their 
college education has given them the same intellectual 
training and the same scholarly and moral ideals." 

Having thus very briefly and all too inade- 
quately sketched, as it were, the history of opin- 
ion regarding woman's education, let us spend a 
few moments more in an attempt to answer for 
ourselves the question. Of what should the modern 
woman's education consist? Let us take it for 
granted, without argument, that woman's edu- 
cation should fit her to discharge, readily and ef- 
fectively and agreeably, duties in the institutional 
life of which she is to become a part, and that 
these duties will relate to the home, to civil so- 
ciety, to the state, to the industrial order, and to 
the church. If she be qualified for service in these 
several institutions, no one would question that 
her life would be full of the richest worth and 
solidest satisfaction. It is to be understood, of 
course, that no individual woman, as no individ- 
ual man, would equally distribute her time and 
her talents in the service of these several institu- 
tions, but would exercise rational judgment in 
the regulation of her life. Nevertheless, the fact 
remains that the modern woman is to render serv- 



THE MODERN WOMAN 175 

ice in the various forms of institutional life 
named above. 

What, then, should be her educational prep- 
aration for service in the home, — a service which 
has been, and is now, her greatest service, and 
one to which the signs of the times indicate 
greater emphasis and greater honor are to be 
attached? What shall be the course of study 
most beneficial to her who is to be the presiding 
genius of the home? Certainly this curriculum 
should provide for liberal and scientific physical 
training. On this point Alfred Fouillee, a mod- 
ern educational writer of France, gives utter- 
ance to a most important truth in these sen- 
tences, taken from his work, "Education from a 
National Standpoint" : 

"The system of muscles unexercised and brains un- 
der hard labor is still more disastrous for women than 
for men. Woman is, par excellence, an instrumeni of 
natural selection, because of the qualities or defects 
she transmits to her children. Further, woman is the 
object of a second form of selection, which results in 
the choice and triumph of the qualities most advan- 
tageous to the race, — typical beauty, vigor, and 
health. . . . Observation and statistics, in fact, 
show us that to excite love and to decide voluntary 
selection, the most powerful means woman possesses 
are those which spring from external advantages; 
then come those supplied by the moral qualities; last 
and weakest are those due to intellectual attractions; 
and even the latter depend far less upon acquired 



176 THE EDUCATION OF 

knowledge than upon natural faculties, such as quick- 
ness, wit, and insight. Here a lesson in pedagogy is 
given by nature herself, condemning the unnatural 
education at present in vogue. . . . Nature acts 
for the interest of the race; her supreme end is the 
welfare of posterity; her means, the selection of 
couples best suited to that end. Now, as far as the 
race is concerned, a cultivated intellect based upon a 
bad physique is of little worth, since its descendants 
will die out in one or two generations. Conversely, a 
good physique, however poor the accompanying men- 
tal endowments, is worth preserving, because, 
throughout the future generations, the mental endow- 
ments may be indefinitely developed." 

The proper physical education of our girls, let 
me say in a word, may be accomplished through 
a rational system of gymnastics, and through 
adequate attention to their games and sports. I 
can conceive of no greater blessing to be enjoyed 
by this state than for her women to be pro- 
foundly convinced of the truth of the doctrine an- 
nounced by Richard Watson Gilder, at a banquet 
recently given in New York City to the English 
novelist, Mrs. Humphrey Ward, and expressed in 
this language: 

"To the decree that mankind shall work for its daily 
bread is added the decree that mankind shall play — 
for the salvation of both its body and its soul — a de- 
cree so inwrought in the very constitution of man that 
there is no greater danger to mankind, especially in 



THE MODERN WOMAN 177 

its state of childhood, than the prevention or the mis- 
direction of play." 

Again, the proper training of the home-maker 
and the home-keeper involves the mastery of 
knowledge relating to the physical, intellectual, 
and moral development of children. According 
to Herbert Spencer, the most glaring defect in 
programs of education is the failure to provide 
instruction valuable for parental guidance. Says 
this great philosopher, in his epoch-making es- 
say, "What Knowledge Is of Most Worth.?": 

"If, by some strange chance, not a vestige o£ us 
should descend to the remote future save a pile of our 
school books or some college examination papers, we 
may imagine how puzzled an antiquary of the period 
would be on finding in them no indication that the 
learners were ever likely to be parents. 'This must 
have been the curriculum of their celibates/ we may 
fancy him concluding. 'I perceive here an elaborate 
preparation for many things, especially for reading 
the books of extinct nations and of co-existing na- 
tions; . . . but I find no reference whatever to 
the bringing up of children. They could not have 
been so absurd as to omit all training for this gravest 
of responsibilities. Evidently, then, this was the 
school course of one of their monastic orders.' " 

In another of Spencer's educational essays he 
declares that no rational plea can be put forward 
for leaving the study of education, that is to say, 



178 THE EDUCATION OF 

the study of the development of children, out of 
the curriculum. Bearing directly, as well as in- 
directly, upon the happiness of the parents them- 
selves, and affecting the character and lives of 
their children, this study, he contends, should 
occupy the highest and largest place in the course 
of instruction passed through by each man and 
woman. "The subject which involves all other 
subjects," he remarks, "and, therefore, the sub- 
ject in which the education of every one should 
culminate, is the theory and practice of educa- 
tion." 

In perfect accord with Spencer's views con- 
cerning this matter is a series of articles entitled 
"The Pedagogical Training of Parents," and 
published this year in The Outlook. These ar- 
ticles have recently been given, in book form, to 
the public, and I should be rejoiced were they to 
be read, yea studied, by every mother and every 
prospective mother in Texas. One of the editors 
of that journal, in connection with an edi- 
torial commending these articles, submits some 
wise reflections in the issue of May 2, 1908. So 
plain and sensible are his suggestions, that I deem 
it worth while to quote these sentences: 

"In a modern play, the hero, fleeing from unjust 
justice, finds an automobilist repairing his machine 
and asks to be taken with him. 'Do you know any- 
thing about an automobile?' asks the owner. 'Not a 
thing.* 'Then you'll do for a chauffeur. Come 



THE MODERN WOMAN 179 

along.' It is upon this principle that the responsi- 
bilities of parenthood are very generally assumed. 
It is not supposed to be necessary that either the 
father or the mother should know anything of the 
delicate physical and moral mechanism of the child 
in order to assume the full responsibility for the 
child's care and training. It has been thought not 
to be in accord with good taste, with feminine sensi- 
bility, with modesty, hardly with good morals, to tell 
her anything concerning the mystery of life. . . 
In our plans of education we prepare our daughters 
for everything except the life to which they may nat- 
urally be expected to devote themselves. They are 
trained for law, for medicine, art, engineering, — for 
everything but motherhood. They are urged to in- 
fluence the city, the state, business, politics, the pub- 
lic charities, the church, — everything except the home. 
*To write and read,' says Dogberry, 'comes by na- 
ture.' He seems to have had the fashioning of the 
American conception of the family. We appear to 
think that capacity for fatherhood and motherhood 
comes by nature." 

The proper direction of the home, further- 
more, requires economic qualifications of no mean 
order. The term wife is sometimes said to 
mean weaver, and, truly, the mistress of a do- 
mestic establishment has much to do in weaving 
the fortunes of her husband, for she it is that not 
only regulates the consumption and expenditures 
of the household, but that, also, not infrequently 
assists generously in swelling its productive in- 
come. No true wife is a mere parasite ; she is an 



180 THE EDUCATION OF 

equal partner with her husband in the business 
side of family life. Such knowledge as will fur- 
nish insight into these economic duties, is, there- 
fore, serviceable, in fact, indispensable. 

The second institution in which woman must 
live and in which she should be prepared to con- 
tribute intelligent service, is the state. It is true 
that, in only a few of the states of this Union, she 
is given the privilege of directly participating 
in the direction of governmental affairs; but 
voting and holding office are but two of the many 
privileges of American citizenship. While these 
two are, for the most part, denied to woman, she 
may freely enjoy all the others, and even these 
two she may at times exercise by proxy. Every 
department of our government, legislative, exe- 
cutive, judicial, is of as tremendous importance 
to the feminine, as it is to the masculine, portion 
of our people, and woman is, therefore, clearly 
entitled to such training in history and political 
science as will enable her to reach a rational com- 
prehension of the theory of government and the 
duties of patriotic citizenship. One distinctive 
doctrine of modern education is that every indi- 
vidual, male or female, finds in his or her own life 
the end of his or her existence, thereby becoming 
freed from' bondage to any institution. We have, 
in this country, at last reached the definite con- 
clusion that woman should stand erect in her own 
right, and that she may justly refuse longer to 
remain in slavery to even so noble an institution 



THE MODERN WOMAN 181 

as the home, and may, without humiliation and 
without loss of reputation or self-respect, mani- 
fest great concern in the management of civil af- 
fairs. 

The third institution to which woman owes al- 
legiance, and many duties relating to which she 
has already become accustomed to discharge, is the 
institution known as civil society. So expert in 
the discharge of some of the social functions has 
become a type of womanhood in every community, 
that the individuals of this type may, in reality, 
be called professional. So-called society leaders 
make a business of giving and of attending social 
functions, a business so exacting during the 
greater part of the year as to forbid any serious 
attention to matters not directly connected with 
the continuous round of pleasure-seeking. A 
woman must needs keep busy if she change her 
costume four or five times a day. It is a matter 
of no small labor to be a guest at dinings, a fre- 
quenter of theaters, house-parties, germans, etc., 
for ten or eleven months in the year. It is not 
disputed that to shine in such circles contributes 
to intellectual development ; but no one would have 
the hardihood to assert that it is intellectual de- 
velopment of the highest order. To make a busi- 
ness of play is, furthermore, about as immoral as 
to make play of business, and a human being 
ought to take life sufficiently seriously to place 
proper meets and bounds to the hours of recrea- 
tion. 



182 THE EDUCATION OF 

Another type of the social woman (and much 
is to be said in praise of that type) is the club 
woman. It is, perhaps, true that some women, as 
some men, because of their infatuation for club 
life have become "jiners," and have obtained mem- 
bership in so many clubs as to make it impossible 
to attend to any other than club duties. Their 
higher duties, those, for example, pertaining to 
the care of their own offspring, are, perhaps 
thoughtlessly, but none the less foolishly and 
wickedly, abandoned. Such women fall under the 
condemnation of that passage of Scripture which 
reads: "He that provideth not for his own 
household is worse than an infidel." 

There are, nevertheless, many demands which 
society may rightfully make upon a woman, de- 
mands to which she may respond in all good con- 
science; but, as intimated concerning the two 
types of society women just now discussed, these 
demands must be reasonable, calling for only such 
service as will not interfere with those duties 
which have greater and more righteous claims. 
The home itself is greatly enriched and sweet- 
ened, losing its spirit of narrowness and clan- 
nishness, when the mother takes an enlightened 
interest and plays a rational part in the social 
life of the community. 

Still another institution which is one of the 
fundamental agencies of civilization, and in which 
all freely admit woman may work with great pro- 
priety and effectiveness, is the church. The 



THE MODERN WOMAN 183 

church affords opportunities for religious devel- 
opment, and, as religion is the broadest thing in 
the world, its effects upon the minds and hearts 
of growing minds should exercise influences of the 
most liberalizing and beneficent character. It is, 
perhaps, true that, under the domination of the 
Schoolmen, the church gave far too great em- 
phasis to the formulating of doctrines of belief; 
but, in the light of the teaching of the modern 
church by men of all the Christian denominations, 
attention is now concentrated upon the fact that 
religion is a life to be lived, and that the validity 
of one's religious faith is to be determined by the 
amount of rational service he renders his fellow- 
men. In accordance with this modern view, the 
religious education of woman, to be carried on in 
the home, the church, and the school, should pre- 
pare her not only to give a reason for the faith 
that is in her, but also to manifest, in intelligent 
and loving service, the substantial nature of that 
faith. Now, in the days of ancient Rome and 
Greece, a philosophy of life that regarded the 
good things of this world, only, obtained. Dur- 
ing the Middle Ages an other-worldly view 
abounded ; but the modern woman, neither forget- 
ting nor despising the things of this world, uses 
them in rational ways without allowing her vision 
of the future world to be obscured. In response 
to the spirit of freedom which she has inherited, 
she is no longer a mere religious vassal and asset 
of priest or husband; but she is engaged con- 



184. THE EDUCATION OF 

sciously in fashioning her own future according 
to the Divine plan as she, herself, discovers it in 
Nature and in Revelation. 

Again, the realm of industrial life constitutes 
another institution by which the progress of the 
race is conserved and advanced, and in which 
women throughout the ages have rendered vol- 
untary and compulsory service. In the United 
States in the year of 1900, the persons that were 
ten years of age or over included 29,700,000 men 
and 28,300,000 women. There were reported 
23,750,000 men and 5,319,000 women, respect- 
ively, that were engaged in work for which com- 
pensation was given. Of the women workers 
about one-third were employed by various manu- 
facturing concerns. Five hundred thousand were 
engaged in commercial life, being bookkeepers, 
clerks, stenographers ; 2,000,000 were employed 
as domestic servants, housekeepers, washer- 
women, and laundresses ; over 100,000 were 
trained nurses ; and 430,000 were following pro- 
fessional or intellectual employments. Of the 
group last named, 300,000 served as teachers, 
3,000 as preachers, 1,000 in drafting, 790 as 
dentists, 2,193 as journalists, 1,000 as lawyers, 
7,400 as physicians, 8,000 as oflSce-holders, and 
6,000 as literary and scientific persons. The 
great majority of these women were, by neces- 
sity, undoubtedly, compelled to resort to voca- 
tional pursuits. Comparatively speaking, only 
a small number, it is believed, voluntarily en- 



THE MODERN WOMAN 185 

tered upon industrial or professional occupations. 
In another section of this paper emphasis has 
been laid upon the fact that the home is the in- 
stitution to which woman generally owes chiefest 
allegiance. The home is the fundamental institu- 
tion of society. The progress and hope of the 
race is dependent upon domestic happiness and 
efficiency. The woman, therefore, who offers up 
her talents upon the altar of vocational life to 
that extent sacrifices herself and the interests of 
the family whose destiny is, or might be, placed 
in her keeping. The normal woman longs for 
the joys incident to home life, and, as civilization 
becomes more and more rational, the number of 
women crowded into the ranks of bread-winners 
will, relatively speaking, be decreased. The cry 
of the woman bound to industrial functions was, 
in a recent number of a popular magazine, thus 
pathetically, but accurately voiced.^ 

Man's work is mine, tho' woman born; 
My hurried way in crowded mart 
Is trod unswervingly each morn; 
I live a thing apart, 
I bear a hungry heart. 

Man's love and babe's, life hath denied; 

No leisure e'en to give a crust 

Is mine, swept onward with the tide 

Of those enslaved by lust 

Of gold, or load unjust. 

2 Elizabeth G. Barbour in American Magazine, May, 1909. 



186 THE EDUCATION OF 

I would not vie with men for gain, 
Nor in the sun of ease would bask; 
I — who man's burden bear with pain — 
I want my woman's task. 
Give this, O Lord, I ask! 

In view of the fact, however, that, on account 
of the exigencies of fortune, many women are 
compelled to engage in labor whereby they may 
earn a decent living, in view of the further fact 
that ability in this direction gives one a sense of 
personal independence and capacitates one to re- 
sist domestic tyranny courageously, and in view 
of yet another important fact that the proper 
management of the home demands much useful 
knowledge related to some of the forms of indus- 
trial life, it seems wise to insist that the educa- 
tion of every woman should include instruction 
and training which will enable her to make her 
own economic way in the world, should never a 
suitor for her hand appear, or should unworthy 
suitors by the score fall at her feet. A very 
meager living, if only self-respect be saved, is 
far preferable to a life of dependence, from which 
the element of shame is, sad to relate, sometimes 
not entirely eliminated. 

Having submitted, after the fashion of the col- 
lege professor, a candid, comprehensive state- 
ment of my convictions concerning a question of 
the greatest importance to the individual and to 
the state, let me turn now to a more delightful 



THE MODERN WOMAN 187 

task, and conclude this address with words of 
congratulation and felicitation to the graduates 
in whose honor we are this hour assembled. 
Young ladies of the graduating class of 1908, 
this entire audience is rejoicing with you over the 
praiseworthy completion of four years' training 
and instruction that have broadened your intel- 
lectual horizon, but have done no injury to your 
womanly sympathies ; that have conserved and 
promoted your physical health and strength, but 
have entailed no loss of that modesty which is the 
most becoming crown, as well as the surest de- 
fense, of womanhood ; and that have deepened 
your insight into secular affairs, but have not de- 
stroyed your faith in the fundamental religious 
doctrine that, while "the things that are seen 
are temporal, the things that are unseen are eter- 
nal." We trust that the future has in store for 
you many joys and triumphs, with only sorrows 
and struggles enough to develop those splendid 
qualities, the possession of which makes one rich 
indeed, guaranteeing as it does that peace of mind 
which the world can neither give nor take away. 
We are confident that you will bear yourselves 
worthy of the best traditions of this institution ; 
that your influence in civic affairs will always be 
exercised in behalf of temperance and justice and 
purity ; that to society circles you will bring 
pleasure without folly, and enlightenment with- 
out fanaticism ; that, in whatever forms of indus- 
trial life your lots may be cast, you will glorify 



188 THE MODERN WOMAN 

even their drudgery by your fidelity and intel- 
ligence; and that in the home you will find your 
chiefest and your suprcmest delight, for you will 
be wise if you heed this injunction found in your 
college catalogue: 

"Above all it must be borne in mind that the high- 
est sphere and noblest function of woman is wife- 
hood, that of the right rearing of offspring and the 
faithful ordering of the home. Any system of edu- 
cation that ignores these highest aims and spheres 
dishonors a woman and does violence to the 
laws of Nature, which arc the laws of God." 



THE SIGNIFICANCE OF CHRISTIAN EDU- 
CATION IN THE TWENTIETH 
CENTURY ^ 

Religion is one of the permanent inheritances 
of the race. Furnishing a philosophy of life, a 
view of the world, it has marked the evolution of 
man in his long struggle from savagery to en- 
lightenment, and there is abundant evidence for 
believing that, in the centuries to come, religious 
ideals will remain an efficient cause in his eleva- 
tion to yet higher forms of spiritual life and 
power. 

Because of this contribution of a view of the 
world, determining and coloring thought and 
feeling and act, we are not surprised that reli- 
gion affects education, which has for its primary 
purpose the unfolding of the powers of the indi- 
vidual and his gradual adjustment to the civiliza- 
tion into which he is born, in which he is to share, 
and to which he should render reasonable and 
efficient service. 

To the student of educational history it is a 
well-known fact that, ever since the conquest of 

1 A commencement address delivered June 3, 1909, at 
Texas Christian University, Waco, Texas. 

189 



190 CHRISTIAN EDUCATION IN 

paganism by Christianity, all forms of educa- 
tional endeavor have been, to a greater or a less 
degree, dominated by the authority of the Chris- 
tian church. Certainly, for a thousand years 
and more, her influence upon the school was su- 
preme. But from the time of the second Renas- 
cence, when the first modern man, the philosopher 
and teacher, Abclard, had the courage to depart 
from the prescribed paths of thinking, there has 
been conflict after conflict between the church and 
other institutions, and between churchmen them- 
selves who entertained antagonistic opinions. 
The school has not infrequently been the storm- 
center of the struggling factions, and to-day it 
may be said that we are passing through that 
stage of evolution which would be denominated 
by Herbert Spencer as the "disagreement of the 
inquiring." 

But, nothwithstanding the fact that there is 
yet existing great diversity of educational aims 
and plans, there is arising, nevertheless, prac- 
tical unanimity with respect to certain funda- 
mental principles, and we may reasonably hope 
that, in the fullness of time, by patient study and 
honorable, fair-minded discussion, the bitterness 
and partisanship now lingering with the church 
on the one side and with the state on the other, 
and the jealousy marking the relations of the 
Catholic with the Protestant world, or of one 
Protestant denomination with other Protestant 
denominations, will be entirely destroyed, and the 



THE TWENTIETH CENTURY 191 

two great institutions, the state and the church, 
will work so harmoniously together as to assure 
the glory of them both, as well as the rational 
and complete development of the individuals by 
whom they are composed, and through whom their 
ideals are to be realized. On this occasion it is 
my purpose to point out candidly what I believe 
to be the path of progress toward the accomplish- 
ment of that result, and I shall confine the dis- 
cussion to the consideration of only two great 
characteristics, or manifest tendencies, of the 
Christian education of the Twentieth Century. 

In the first place. Christian education is cer- 
tainly beginning to educate, and in the complete 
sense of that term. Partial views of human evo- 
lution cannot now be accepted for the regulation 
of a Christian school that is in line with modern 
thought. No longer can monastic, mediaeval edu- 
cational philosophy exercise controlling influence, 
for provision must be made, not only for strictly 
religious instruction, but also for the sane and 
continuous development of the intellect and the 
body, as well, and that, too, for the sake of the 
higher interests of the soul itself. No more valu- 
able lesson has been learned by the modern church 
than that man is a unit, soul and body being one, 
and that they should not be divided. The school 
of the Twentieth Century, keeping in mind the 
necessity of ministering to the needs of the whole 
man, will, therefore, have an extensive curriculum, 
recognizing studies pertaining to human nature 



19a CHRISTIAN EDUCATION IN 

and also those pertaining to nature. Science and 
religion are not to be considered as enemies who 
hate one another, for, as Professor Huxley re- 
marks : 

"They are twin sisters, and the separation of either 
from the other is sure to prove the death of both. 
Science prospers exactly in proportion as it is reli- 
gious, and religion flourishes in exact proportion to the 
scientific depth and firmness of its basis." 

Accordingly, the Christian school, working 
freely and without fear in harmony with the 
spirit of true science, teaches the truth as it is 
revealed through honest, patient study of the 
several realms of human learning. Christianity 
wishes only the truth in either rhetoric or 
biology ; in ancient or modern languages ; in 
art or in mathematics ; in law or in medicine ; 
in engineering, or in theology. Men and women 
having a reason for the Christian faith that is 
in them, are so fully persuaded of the soundness 
of the foundations of that faith that, far from 
being afraid of the results that are to come from 
the investigations of truthful men, they encour- 
age research in every field of thought, and re- 
joice at the discovery of truth, wherever and by 
whomsoever it may be found. 

Again, Christian education is rapidly becoming 
dissatisfied with inadequate means for the per- 
formance of its great work. It insists that each 



THE TWENTIETH CENTURY 193 

school shall have a faculty of thoroughly edu- 
cated men and women, and sufficiently numerous 
to discharge in a truly vital and professional 
way the delicate and difficult functions of teach- 
ing. Furthermore, sufficient means to provide 
comfortable and appropriate buildings, together 
with libraries, laboratories and dormitories, are 
now considered not only desirable, but also ab- 
solutely necessary. While the declaration that 
Mark Hopkins at one end of a log and a capable 
student at the other, constitute a college, is a 
splendid tribute to a worthy college president, 
yet, when weighed in the balance of reason, this 
encomium must be regarded as a notable example 
of educational hyperbole, for the thinking world 
is agreed that a college in modern times needs 
more than one professor, more timber than one 
log, and a student-body of more than one indi- 
vidual. The time is rapidly approaching, if, in 
fact, it has not already come, when a foreigner, 
giving an account of collegiate education in 
America, could not truthfully make such state- 
ments as the following, taken from "The Ameri- 
can Commonwealth," written by that careful ob- 
server and distinguished man of letters and af- 
fairs, the Honorable James Bryce: 

"I remember to have met in the far West a college 
president [he could have been met in the far South- 
west] — I will call him ]Mr. Johnson — who gave me a 
long account of his young university, established by 



194 CHRISTIAN EDUCATION IN 

public authority. . . . He was an active, san- 
guine man, and, in dilating on his plans, frequently 
referred to 'the faculty' as doing this or contemplat- 
ing that. At last I asked of how many professors 
the faculty at present consisted. 'Well,' he an- 
swered, 'just at present the faculty is below its full 
strength; but it will soon be more numerous.' 'And 
at present?' I inquired. 'At present it consists of 
Mrs. Johnson and myself.' " 

Again, Christian schools of whatever grade will, 
by means of both instruction and training, cul- 
tivate in their students reasonable degrees of ef- 
ficiency in activities relating to the welfare of the 
individual, but more especially to the weal of so- 
cial institutions. Individual efficiency may, in 
fact, be regarded as a by-product of social effi- 
ciency. In these latter days no man liveth unto 
himself, and we are rapidly coming to exercise 
saving faith in the educational ideal formulated 
by Herbart, who contended that the whole aim in 
life, and, therefore, in education, is morality (and 
by this he means a Christian morality), and, con- 
sequently, the whole aim in education is to insure 
to the pupil the moral revelation of the world of 
nature and the world of man. The truth is that 
the ultra-individualist, the man who works only 
at cross-purposes with his fellows in the home or 
in society or in the state or in the church or in 
the industrial world, can no longer be considered 
an educated man. We majj^, therefore, boldly as- 
sert, and without dogmatism, that Christian edu- 



THE TWENTIETH CENTURY 195 

cation in the Twentieth Century, having inherited 
the labors of the preceding centuries, and having 
profited by educational doctrines of permanent 
worth contributed by those centuries, is ready to 
adopt the highest conception of education, which, 
perhaps, from the standpoint of the schoolman, 
has been no more clearly and satisfactorily for- 
mulated than in these words, which are quoted from 
a pedagogical work published a few years ago by 
a brilliant young American scholar and teacher: 

"Education is the eternal process of superior ad- 
justment of the physically and mentally developed, 
free, conscious human being to God, as manifested in 
the intellectual, emotional, and volitional environment 
of man." ^ 

In the second place, education directed by the 
Christian church of the Twentieth Century is to 
possess in a far higher degree than in any preced- 
ing century, the fundamental characteristics of 
the spirit of the founder of the Christian religion. 
Preeminently among these characteristics stands 
regard for the welfare of one's fellows. The life 
which the Christ lived among men, from begin- 
ning to end, furnishes concrete proof of the valid- 
ity of this doctrine. The second of the two 
great commandments, upon which He said hang 
all the law and the prophets, is, "Love thy neigh- 
bor as thyself." Though uttered two thousand 

2 Home's "The Philosophy of Education," p. 285. 



196 CHRISTIAN EDUCATION IN 

years ago, it was reserved until our day for man 
to understand that his neighbors include the men 
in his own immediate environment who sit in dark- 
ness, as well as those who walk in the light ; those 
who are of different blood, as well as those of the 
same blood as himself; those who live in distant 
lands, as well as in his own country ; those who 
are at enmity with himself, that persecute him and 
despitefully use him, as well as those who are 
reckoned among his friends and who give him 
comfort and who delight to do him honor. This 
principle of love, having firm foundation upon the 
underlying doctrines that God is the father of 
all men, and that, therefore, all men are brothers, 
is destroying, slowly, perhaps, but surely, the va- 
rious forms of caste, founded upon the basis of 
blood or wealth or latitude or longitude or pro- 
fession or avocation or any other fortuitous cir- 
cumstances, and is strengthening the true Chris- 
tian ideal of democracy among men. It is be- 
cause of faith in this democratic ideal that tre- 
mendous systems of popular education at public 
expense have been established, and are destined 
to bless the world with their fruits of intelligence 
and righteousness. It is this spirit that is res- 
cuing the laboring common people from a state 
of bondage, and which promises to confer upon 
them in due time the enjoyment of all reasonable 
political and social privileges. It is this spirit 
that has been bringing more justice and right- 
eousness and humanity into the world of business, 



THE TWENTIETH CENTURY 197 

into the legislative hall, into the court-room, into 
the prison, and into every other place where hu- 
man rights should be regarded. It is this spirit 
that, within the last hundred years, has made the 
missionary movement at home and abroad an un- 
dertaking of stupendous, world-wide proportions. 
What has already been accomplished is only a 
prophecy of what is to be revealed in the future, 
when the whole earth shall appreciate the fullness 
of the meaning of the words of the great apostle 
to the Gentiles, "Now abideth faith, hope, love, 
these three; but the greatest of these is love." 

Growing directly out of the altruism charac- 
teristic of the Son of Man is the spirit of toler- 
ance. It is remarkable, although it may be eas- 
ily explained, that the conduct of the Christian 
church for hundreds of years was marked by a 
degree of intolerance sadly inconsistent with the 
teachings and life of Him who could associate 
with publicans and sinners, and so much at va- 
riance with the loving words and labors of that 
greatest of all the apostles, who, in his letter to 
the Romans, remarked: "I am debtor both to 
the Greeks and barbarians, both to the wise and 
the unwise ; so, as much as in me is, I am ready to 
preach the gospel to you that are at Rome, also." 

No other religion found among men lays so in- 
sistent demand upon the continuous manifesta- 
tion of a tolerant attitude of mind, for no other 
religion emphasizes the universal brotherhood of 
the race, thereby recognizing that reason, the 



198 CHRISTIAN EDUCATION IN 

characteristic attribute of the human mind, is an 
attribute shared by all men. Even the Hebrew 
religion, which was the purest of all the religions 
of ancient times, and upon which the Christian re- 
ligion was grafted, was too narrow to contain the 
spirit of the gospel of Christ, who commanded 
that it be preached among all nations, beginning 
at Jerusalem. The Christian world has been slow 
to develop magnanimity of soul, a condition which 
only the tolerant mind can reach, and it has been 
equally careless to protect itself from the wither- 
ing influences of narrowness and bigotry. But 
are we not now at least beginning to suspect that 
the spirit of Christ does not shine forth in the 
life of the Protestant who despises the Catholic, 
and vice versa; that the Christian who scorns the 
Jew is not living worthy of the vocation where- 
with the Christian is called, and that especially 
indefensible, if not contemptible, is a Protestant 
sect which seeks to limit the love of God and the 
salvation of men to those only that can, with 
great facility of speech and expansion of lungs, 
pronounce its shibboleth? Are we not almost 
ready to believe that the education which Christ 
would approve is not to consist of special propa- 
gandas, but that it is to present loyally and 
earnestly the whole truth, which is without pro- 
vincialism and self-righteousness, and by which 
the rational freedom of the world is to be 
achieved? These questions being answered in the 
aflSrmativc, it follows that every educational in- 



THE TWENTIETH CENTURY 199 

stitution from the kindergarten to the university, 
if it be worthy to wear the name of the Master 
it professes to serve, will so prosecute its labors 
as to strengthen the bonds of union among men 
upon the basis of mutual courtesy and reason- 
ableness and sympathy, thereby affording sure 
protection against Phariseeism, the anti-social 
mother of pride, of hatred, and of bigotry. 

A third attribute of Christian education, looked 
at from the religious standpoint, is zeal for social 
service. The development of the individual for 
his own sake and without regard to his institu- 
tional obligations, if universally practiced, would 
establish everywhere the reign of selfishness, 
which, according to the Christian view, is the seat 
of mortal sin. It was this reign of individualism 
which attacked Greece in the immortal Fifth Cen- 
tury, B. C, and which destroyed the foundations 
of her religious and political institutions, and 
which finally led to the loss of her independence. 
The problem of the ages has been how to recon- 
cile the freedom of the individual and the right 
to his own individuality with the power of the 
social institution and its justice in levying trib- 
ute upon human beings by whom it is composed. 
It was reserved to the Christian religion to bring 
about this reconciliation. It is the one religion 
of earth which lays emphasis upon the majesty of 
the individual and at the same time enjoins upon 
him the duty of spending and of being spent in 
the cause of human progress. The Middle-Age 



200 CHRISTIAN EDUCATION IN 

view of devoting one's life to the saving of his 
own soul cannot, in our day, be regarded as an 
essentially Christian doctrine; for, as Joseph 
Parker declares : 

"Salvation is not solitude. . . . Salvation is 
the art of a noble fellowship. . . . No salvation 
is so selfish as pious selfishness; no cruelty is so cruel 
as Christian cruelty. . . . 'Are you saved?' may 
be a wicked inquiry. In another sense there can be 
no greater question than 'Are you saved?' Are you 
a new creature, a liberated soul, a mind on whom 
there shines the whole heaven of God's light?' Are 
you a soldier, a servant, a helper of the helpless, a 
leader of the blind? Are you akin to the soul of 
Christ?" 

The Twentieth Century is asking that all forms 
of education conducted under Christian auspices 
cultivate this kinship to the soul of Christ. 
Even the theological seminaries, though they have 
been the slowest of educational institutions to 
catch the breath of modern progress, as well as 
to interpret rationally the great purpose in the 
heart of the Founder of the Christian religion, 
are manifesting signs of the reorganization of 
their courses of study and methods of instruction. 
These changes are coming in response to the de- 
mand that schools for the education of the min- 
istry are under bond to equip men with sufficient 
insight, born of both instruction and practical 
training, to interpret aright modern social con- 



THE TWENTIETH CENTURY 201 

ditions and to apply, tactfully and effectively, the 
Christian gospel in the solution of the many com- 
plex problems with which these conditions abound. 
It is believed that young men of the highest tal- 
ent are willing to prepare themselves for such a 
noble struggle ; but that they are not willing to 
engage in the continuation of theological disputes 
that have long ago ceased to be interesting save 
on account of their historical significance alone. 
The theological education that young men of 
brains and enterprise and consecration are de- 
manding is that which fits for actual service in 
the present age of the world. In proportion as 
this great fact becomes recognized by schools en- 
gaged in educating men and women for the min- 
istry, just in that proportion will they furnish 
an education that is truly Christian. 

Another cardinal principle in all education 
rightfully claiming to be Christian, is courage. 
One's heart may be altruistic in the very highest 
degree ; he may be a stranger to the intolerant 
attitude of mind ; he may have the disposition to 
render service to his fellows ; but, if his will be 
weak, if he lack determination and fearlessness of 
purpose, he will inevitably be called upon to meet 
situations before which his heart will quail, and he 
will yield to the temptation of retiring from the 
contest. Modern life, especially, is full of oppor- 
tunities for testing the worth of the human will, 
and the Twentieth Century is offering no pre- 
miums for the man who is unwilling, in any cause 



202 CHRISTIAN EDUCATION IN 

which he may espouse, to lead the strenuous life. 
This doctrine was presented in these words by 
President Roosevelt in an address delivered on 
the 200th anniversary of the birth of John Wes- 
ley: 

"If, during this century the men of high and fine 
moral sense show themselves weaklings; if they pos- 
sess only that cloistered virtue which shrinks, shudder- 
ing, from contact with the raw facts of actual life; 
if they dare not go down into the hurly-burly where 
the men of might contend for the mastery; if they 
stand aside from the pressure and conflict; then, as 
surely as the sun rises and sets, all our great material 
progress, all the multitude of physical agencies which 
tend to comfort and enjoyment will go for naught, 
and our civilization will become a brutal sham and 
mockery." 

This element of character, which is called cour- 
age, implies, besides, that one shall have the dis- 
position and the ability to be true to himself, to 
think his own thoughts and to stand for them, 
even at the risk of running counter to opinions 
largely or, perhaps, almost universally upheld by 
his contemporaries. One has that courage which 
the apostle says should be added to faith, when 
his conduct In the crises of life is fashioned after 
that of John the Baptist before Herod, of Paul 
before Agrippa, of Luther before the Diet at 
Worms, and of Christ before Pilate. A man en- 
titled to the highest degree for which Christian 



THE TWENTIETH CENTURY 203 

education furnishes adequate preparation must 
be conscious of inner freedom, must know that 
he is the vassal and the property of no institution, 
however exalted its name and its character, and 
must be ready, if necessary, to give up every 
earthly possession rather than sacrifice this, the 
very essence of his selfhood. It is by the mani- 
festation of this attribute of the soul that man 
wins his greatest glory. This thought was in the 
poet's mind when he wrote : ^ 

"It is glory enough to have shouted the name 
Of the hving God in the teeth of an army of foes. 
To have thrown all prudence and forethought away 
And for once to have followed the call of the soul 
Out into the danger of darkness, of ruin and of 

death, 
To have counseled with right, not success, for once, 
Is glory enough for one day. 

"It is glory enough for one day 
To have marched out alone before the seats of the 

scornful. 
Their fingers all pointing your way; 
To have felt and wholly forgotten the branding-iron 

of their eyes; 
To have stood up proud and reliant on only your 

soul. 
And go calmly on with your duty — 
It is glory enough. 

3 William Herbert Carruth in American Magazine, Feb- 
ruary, 1907. 



204j christian EDUCATION IN 

"It is glory enough to have taken the perilous risk 
Instead of investing in stocks and paid-up insurance 

for once, 
To have fitted a cruiser for right to adventure a sea 

full of shoals; 
To sail without chart and with only the stars for a 

guide; 
To have dared to lose with all the chances for losing. 
Is glory enough." 

There have been set forth in your hearing, very 
hastily and inadequately, it is true, the two tend- 
encies of Christian education in our century, the 
tendency that demands the employment of ra- 
tional, honest, efficient educative agencies, and 
the tendency that, in organization, in content, 
and in method, it embody the simple, yet sublime, 
characteristic attributes of the founder of Chris- 
tianity. It would be interesting to continue the 
discussion by locating and describing the work of 
the several educational institutions that are to 
carry forward the development of the race to- 
ward that spiritual goal which was set up by 
Jesus of Nazareth, and the vision of which, it 
seems, in our century, is becoming clearly defined. 

The shortness of the time at my disposal, as 
well as of your patience, prevents the extended 
treatment of this important question, a question 
to which many diverse answers would be given, a 
question full of complexity and difficulty, yet a 
question to which it is believed the Twentieth Cen- 
tury will offer at least the beginnings of a satis- 



THE TWENTIETH CENTURY 205 

factory answer. Even already there is the ap- 
pearance of progress toward unanimity of opin- 
ion ; even now there are not a few thoughtful men 
and women who subscribe to the view that Chris- 
tian education can be, and should be, found in 
every home and in every school whether ele- 
mentary, secondary, or higher, whether main- 
tained by a private individual, by church, or by 
state or by other corporate body. 

In some nations the strife between church and 
state has not yet ended, and the difficulties of 
the problem of religious education in the secular 
school cannot now be overcome. In America, 
however, there is presented no insuperable diffi- 
culty. While we have no state religion, there is, 
as DeTocqueville remarks, "religion in the state." 
It is commonly agreed that all sectarian instruc- 
tion be legally banished from schools supported 
at the expense of the state ; but the vital prin- 
ciples of Christianity are anything but sectarian 
(it is my own belief that they are not sectarian 
because they are true). 

In one of the opinions handed down by the Su- 
preme Court of Pennsylvania, occurs this lan- 
guage : 

"Christianity, general Christianity, is, and always 

has been, a part of the common law of Pennsylvania; 

. not Christianity with an established church 

and tithes and spiritual courts, but Christianity with 

liberty of conscience for all men." 



206 CHRISTIAN EDUCATION IN 

Mr. Justice Brewer, in delivering in 1891 the 
opinion of the Supreme Court in the case of Holy 
Trinity church against the United States, an 
opinion which declared that the employment of 
an Englishman to serve as the pastor of an Amer- 
ican church is not in violation of the law forbid- 
ding the importation of foreigners, discusses at 
length the fact that the American people are a 
religious people, and that their governments re- 
spect the sanctions of religion. After quoting 
from the constitutions and laws of a number of 
states and of the Nation, he adds: 

"There is no dissonance in these declarations. 
There is a universal language pervading them all, hav- 
ing one meaning; they affirm and reaffirm that we are 
a religious people. These are not individual sayings, 
declarations of private persons; they are organic 
utterances ; they speak the voice of the entire people." 

In harmony with the views in Justice Brewer's 
celebrated opinion are the decisions of the higher 
courts of Texas in a case which originated in 
Corsicana, and in which the plaintiffs sought to 
prevent the reading of the Bible, the singing of 
hymns, and the offering of prayer in the public 
schools of that city. Chief Justice Rainey, who 
delivered the opinion for the Court of Civil Ap- 
peals of the Dallas district, in giving reasons for 
the decision, which was rendered against the 
plaintiffs, declared that the laws of the state 



THE TWENTIETH CENTURY 207 

neither require nor forbid the use of the Bible in 
the public schools, and that, therefore, the Court 
would not declare its use unlawful simply because 
there is apprehension that the school authorities 
may abuse its use by attempting to teach sec- 
tarian views. It was, furthermore, set forth 
that the Bible is not a sectarian book, but 
one teaching the principles of morality, which 
tend to elevate humanity to a high plane and to 
produce an exalted type of civilization, to 
reach which should be the aim of all govern- 
ments. The case was appealed to the Supreme 
Court, and, in the opinion delivered by As- 
sociate Justice Brown in 1908, the judgments 
of the district court and the Court of Civil Ap- 
peals were affirmed. The concluding paragraph 
of Justice Brown's opinion reads as follows : 

"There is no difference in the protection given by 
our constitution between citizens of this state on ac- 
count of religious beliefs, — all are embraced in its 
broad language and are entitled to the protection 
guaranteed thereby; but it does not follow that one 
or more individuals have the right to have the courts 
deny the people the privilege of having their children 
instructed in the moral truths of the Bible because 
such objectors do not desire that their own children 
shall be participants therein. This would be to starve 
the moral and spiritual natures of the many out of 
deference to the few." 

It is not likely that, within the narrow limits 



208 CHRISTIAN EDUCATION IN 

of a single century, the results of the conflict 
between church and state will have entirely dis- 
appeared; but the organization and the work of 
the National Religious Education Association in 
our country, the increased fellowship among the 
several religious denominations, the growth of in- 
telligence, and the emphasis upon essentials and 
the disregard of non-essentials in religion — all 
these and many other evidences that could be 
enumerated, furnish the foundation for the hope 
that the time will come when real education, 
wherever it may be aff*orded, will not fail to give 
such attention to religious culture as its impor- 
tance and necessity demand. When that day 
comes, there cannot possibly arise jealousy and 
antagonism among schools fostered by various 
agencies, because all will be directing their efforts 
for the accomplishment of the same results. I 
rejoice that to-day in Texas we have begun to 
realize the beauty and the value of the Christian 
virtue of living together in harmony and of work- 
ing together in the higher interests of the rising 
generation of our great state. Every man who 
is promoting the bonds of fellowship among the 
schools of the church and the schools of the state 
is helping to speed the coming of that day when 
the schools throughout the length and breadth of 
our commonwealth will, as the result of their la- 
bors, send forth into the several walks of life 
men and women of whom it can be truthfully said, 
"As to scholarship they need not apologize, and 



THE TWENTIETH CENTURY 209 

as to their character, the Christian church has 
no reason for regret or alarm." 

In conclusion, let me extend to you, the mem- 
bers of the graduating class, the sincere congrat- 
ulations of the governing body of this university, 
of its faculty, of this entire audience, and of 
thousands of other good people who have an abid- 
ing interest in all that concerns the welfare of 
this institution. By your fidelity to duty, ofttimes 
discharged at the expense of great self-denial, you 
have overcome obstacle after obstacle in your col- 
legiate career. From your alma mater you to- 
day receive your diplomas, which are your com- 
missions into the world of letters and the world 
of life, and by the awarding of which she ex- 
presses her confidence in your culture and your 
character. She has, during these last four years, 
with the zeal and affection of a mother, devoted 
herself to your service. By practice, as well as 
by precept, she has set before you the ideals of 
education which the Great Teacher Himself would 
indorse. She now sends you forth to reproduce, 
in your own lives and in their influence upon other 
lives, her teaching and her spirit. She expects 
you to be friendly to scholars, to be sympathetic 
with all phases of true learning, and to be loyal to 
honest standards in educational adminstra- 
tion. While she is justified in the hope that, from 
the secular point of view, you will plainly mani- 
fest the evidences of a liberal education, she is 
far more concerned that the results of her min- 



210 CHRISTIAN EDUCATION 

istry be revealed in the Christian fruits of the 
love, tolerance, service, and courage you will ex- 
hibit in the long years stretching out before you. 
Or, rather, let me say, if she will not consider me 
overbold in the presumption that my wish is hers, 
her supreme desire is, that, inasmuch as the secu- 
lar life and the religious life are not two things, 
but only one thing, you will think education and 
religion into a lasting unity, and that, so far as 
opportunity be afforded, you will contend for that 
unity, without which it is idle to hope for the 
reign of genuine progress and permanent peace 
among men. As the man of your counsel she 
urges you to accept the man of Galilee, the match- 
less counselor of the ages, for, in the Twentieth 
Century, as in the nineteen centuries that have 
gone before, He is "the Way, the Truth, and the 
Life." 



XI 



SOME FUNDAMENTAL EDUCATIONAL 

PRINCIPLES APPLIED TO THE WORK 

OF THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL ^ 

The increasing number of rational religious 
activities in our day is proof of the fact that we 
are beginning to realize the truth of this state- 
ment, found in the parable of the unjust stew- 
ard: "The children of this world are, in their 
generation, wiser than the children of light." ^ 
This state conference of a great denomination is 
suflScient proof that its leaders are taking 
thought whereby the work of the Sunday-school 
shall be so conducted as to justify the time and 
labor and money spent thereon, and to be worthy 
of Him in whose name it is accomplished. The 
contribution I bring to you this evening has been 
prepared with the hope and with the conviction 
that some lessons learned in the study of prob- 
lems relating to secular education are equally 
valuable when transferred to the realm of reli- 
gious education. The truth is that it is man's 
mind or soul that is religious, and the laws of 

1 An address delivered in San Antonio, April 6, 1910, 
before the Texas Methodist State Sunday-school Confer- 
ence. 

2 Luke 16:8. 

211 



212 EDUCATIONAL PRINCIPLES 

mental development are fundamentally impor- 
tant when we come to consider man's spiritual 
progress. If the Sunday-school is to continue 
to wear its name, it must be worthy of that name, 
and must, therefore, be subject to the pedagogic 
laws governing any institution rightfully claim- 
ing to be a school. 

Attention is now invited to a brief considera- 
tion of two principles, one relating to the organi- 
zation of the school, and the other to the method 
which should obtain in Sunday-school teaching. 

I. ORGANIZATION 

The first principle may be stated thus : The 
life and the progress of the Sunday-school are de- 
pendent upon the rational organization of the 
several parts of which it is composed. 

Every social institution is a spiritual organ- 
ism, and, if it is to accomplish tlie purposes of 
its life, its several parts must be brought into 
right relations with one another, each part func- 
tioning for the well-being, not of itself alone, but 
also of the entire organism. This is a universal 
biologic law, the evidences of which may be found 
on every hand. In the world of trade, for ex- 
ample, the Standard Oil trust illustrates most 
forcibly the effectiveness of knitting together the 
several agencies by means of which that colossal 
enterprise has been so developed as to destroy 
competition, to defy courts, legislatures, con- 



APPLIED TO SUNDAY-SCHOOL 213 

gresses, and even public opinion, and to make it 
possible for its creative genius to transmit to fu- 
ture generations, for philanthropic purposes, a 
fortune, the amount of which it almost staggers 
the imagination of a preacher or a college pro- 
fessor to conceive. 

In politics, also, the value of organized effort 
cannot be overestimated. Ask any candidate for 
governor by what means he is certain of the nomi- 
nation at the primaries next July, and he will tell 
you that he has so well-trained and so thoroughly 
organized a force of militant supporters that con- 
fusion and final defeat will inevitably come to his 
enemies. Ask Uncle Joe Cannon why he is this 
spring not enjoying his usual serenity of spirit, 
and he will answer that the unfaithful insurgents 
and the dastardly democrats have, to an unex- 
pected and alarming degree, organized their 
forces against the Speaker's rule. 

Everywhere this principle of organization ob- 
tains. The fundamental difference between life in 
a highly civilized community and life under primi- 
tive conditions is that in the former, cooperation 
is the law of endeavor, the result being blessings 
to the entire membership of the community, while 
in the latter, every man is for himself, with the 
usual result that few there be that fail to fall into 
the clutches of the Evil One. 

This fundamental principle holds with respect 
to the school, which is, in fact, the greatest busi- 
ness in the world, the business of world-building 



214 EDUCATIONAL PRINCIPLES 

itself, and, in order that its results be acceptable, 
its several forces must be exercised in unity for 
the accomplishment of a common purpose. 

Let us now consider, hastily, some important 
principles of organization that may be applied to 
the Sunday-school. In the first place, the entire 
membership of a Sunday-school should be enlisted, 
not for a single campaign, but for the entire war. 
A school so organized as to require that reorgan- 
ization take place weekly or monthly is, in fact, 
without organization, and will waste its strength 
and consume its whole time in trying to become 
organized, every undertaking in this direction re- 
sulting in failure. 

This principle carries with it, furthermore, that 
all the officers and members will be at their re- 
spective posts of duty regularly and punctually. 
Regularity and punctuality are two absolutely 
necessary virtues which should be continuously 
manifested, if genuine progress in Sunday-school 
work be achieved. Irregularity of attendance on 
the part of pupils will surely beget not only loss 
of interest, but also ineffectiveness of instruction. 
There is something wrong with a boy's head if, 
for example, during an absence of two Sundays, 
he is not able to forget as much as he learned 
during a brief period of thirty minutes' instruc- 
tion on one Sunday. Furthermore, his absence 
any one day breaks the continuity of instruction. 
If he miss one convocation of his class, it is vir- 
tually equivalent to missing at least two, for he is 



APPLIED TO SUNDAY-SCHOOL 215 

likely to be totally unprepared for the instruction 
he ought to receive upon his return. Irregular- 
ity on the part of teachers is about as disastrous, 
if it be not more disastrous, than irregularity on 
the part of pupils, for the continuous change of 
teachers is no more to be commended than is the 
continuous change of mothers. Our Sunday- 
schools need to be taught this lesson, — that teach- 
ing Sunday-school or attending Sunday-school is 
a business which should be administered in a busi- 
nesslike way. The motto of all Sunday-school 
workers should be what I once heard the great 
Bishop Galloway say should be the rallying cry 
of the Methodist Church, "All at it, and at it all 
the time." 

Again, a Sunday-school ought not to be a mob, 
and its work should not be planned along the lines 
of mob-development. Its pupils should be divided 
into classes of reasonable size, for it is impos- 
sible to teach children en masse. Regimental 
movements are advisable in military manoeuver- 
ing; but in teaching it is the mind of the indi- 
vidual child that must be taught. 

Each class should, furthermore, have a conven- 
ient and comfortable place in which to receive in- 
struction. It is not too much to add that it 
should be a reasonably quiet place. It is for this 
reason that in our public schools classes are in- 
structed in separate rooms, and it is a distinct 
gain in the organization of any Sunday-school 
when, instead of having all the classes heard in 



216 EDUCATIONAL PRINCIPLES 

one immense amphitheater, there are provided as 
many separate places of instruction as there are 
groups of pupils to be instructed. 

Another principle of organization is that pu- 
pils should be grouped according to their ability 
to receive instruction. In other words, the Sun- 
day-school must be graded if it is to be anything 
more than a mere assembly in which children and 
adults spend a rather dreary and unprofitable 
hour every Lord's-day. It does not take a peda- 
gogic expert to understand the force of this con- 
tention. Any intelligent man in a Texas com- 
munity would consider a school superintendent 
a fit subject for the insane asylum if that edu- 
cational leader should so organize the schools un- 
der his supervision as to assign to each of his 
teachers pupils of widely varying degrees of ad- 
vancement, some being in the primary, others in 
the grammar school, and others in the high-school 
stage of thinking. 

Here I am led to remark that the minister of 
the gospel is entitled to our deepest S3^nipathy 
and broadest charity, for every time he preaches, 
he must speak to an audience composed of indi- 
viduals who differ widely in intellect, and, if pos- 
sible, even more widely in moral development and 
spiritual needs. This accounts for the fact that 
it takes so long a time to convert the sinners of 
this world. Millions of sermons have been 
preached in Texas, alone, sermons enough to have 
converted the habitable globe; but I am per- 



APPLIED TO SUNDAY-SCHOOL 217 

suadeiJ from some remarks that have been made 
about life in this city, that even in San Antonio 
one could, without great difficulty, find perhaps as 
many as one or two unconverted heathen. 

Another important problem connected with the 
grading of the Sunday-school is the course of 
study. This problem is of the very greatest dif- 
ficulty, for the selection of culture-materials to 
be used in religious education demands even 
greater care and more delicate insight than does 
the choosing of culture-materials to be employed 
in secular education. 

Much study and some progress have already been 
made in formulating a rational course of study 
for the Sunday-schooL It is now very generally 
agreed that the lesson-materials shall be so graded 
in difficulty as to be adapted to the varying de- 
grees of the capacities of the pupils. It is cer- 
tain that this course of study should not be domi- 
nated by the theological idea, for in neither child- 
hood nor youth are one's powers sufficiently de- 
veloped for him to grapple with abstract philo- 
sophical problems. The Sunday-school should 
never seek to become a theological seminary. While 
none of us would endorse Rousseau's contention 
that the child, up to the age of fifteen years, 
should have no religious education, that he should 
not even know he has a soul, and perhaps at the 
age of eighteen he is not yet ready to receive 
such instruction, yet it is a fact that the cul- 
tivation of religious precocity is as dangerous as 



218 EDUCATIONAL PRINCIPLES 

that of physical or intellectual precocity. The 
old adage, which is an expression of the instinc- 
tive judgment of the race, "The good die young," 
should not be forgotten by those who formulate 
Sunday-school courses of study. 

It is not every portion of the Holy Scriptures, 
even, that is suitable for every grade of pupil. 
The very highest pedagogic art is involved in 
choosing out from the vast materials found in the 
sixty-six books of the Sacred Scriptures those por- 
tions which, when joined together and successfully 
mastered by the pupil as he advances from grade 
to grade, will furnish a respectable knowledge of 
the Bible, and will reveal to him, in clearness and 
simplicity, the fundamental truths of the Chris- 
tian religion. I repeat it is the grading of this 
material that calls for the highest order of peda- 
gogic insight and skill. The Bible was primarily 
written for adults, and it would be as reasonable 
to expect that a child understand Shakespeare as 
that he comprehend the Bible as a whole. This 
leads me to commend what is the practice now with 
some of the authors of graded Sunday-school les- 
sons, the correlating of suitable materials, both 
of verse and prose, found in literature outside of 
the Bible. Especially is this practice desirable, if 
not positively necessary, in connection with the 
instruction of the primary grades, and there is 
good reason for believing that such a policy is 
wise for every grade, even the highest. 

In the literature of our own language there is 



APPLIED TO SUNDAY-SCHOOL S19 

a multitude of beautiful productions breathing 
forth the loftiest Christian sentiment. Let me 
give an example or two. In connection with any 
one of a number of Bible lessons in which is shown 
the beauty and worth of service, effective use could 
be made of the following simple verses : 

WHAT CHRIST SAID 

"I said, 'Let me walk in the fields.' 

He said, 'No, walk in the town.' 
I said, 'There are no flowers there.' 

He said, 'No flowers, but a crown.' 

"I said, 'But the skies are black, — 
There is nothing but noise and din.' 

And he wept as he sent me back; 

'There is more,' he said, 'there is sin.' 

"I said, 'But the air is thick. 

And fogs are veihng the sun.' 
He answered, 'Yet souls are sick. 

And souls in the dark undone.' 

"I pleaded for time to be given; 

He said, 'Is it hard to decide? 
It will not seem hard in heaven 

To have followed the steps of your guide.' " 

Again, in teaching the lesson of confidence in 
God as set forth in the life of the patriarch Job, 
his sublime declaration, "Though He slay me, yet 
will I trust Him," could be reinforced by Tenny- 



220 EDUCATIONAL PRINCIPLES 

son's "Crossing the Bar," the last two stanzas of 
which read thus: 

"Twilight and evening bell. 

And after that the dark ! 
And may there be no sadness of farewell 

When I embark. 

"For tho' from out our bourne of Time and Place 

The flood may bear me far, 
I hope to see my pilot face-to-face 

When I have crossed the bar." 

Another principle of organization which cannot, 
with safety, be overlooked, is that the teachers 
of the Sunday-school must, themselves, be so 
organized as to ensure continuous training of a 
professionally pedagogic character. The super- 
intendent and other officers are important func- 
tionaries ; but the real heart of every school con- 
sists of its staff of teachers. There is, in our 
country to-day, no city which does not make pro- 
vision for the regular meetings of teachers em- 
ployed in its public schools. In our secular 
schools we have learned that it is the special func- 
tion of those charged with organization and ad- 
ministration to help poor teachers become good 
teachers, and good teachers better teachers. The 
plain and simple truth that the teacher must be 
growing professionally as long as he teaches, is 
one that our Sunday-schools, I am happy to say, 
are beginning to appreciate, and it is safe to 



APPLIED TO SUNDAY-SCHOOL 221 

prophesy that some day the men and women 
charged with the responsible duties of teaching 
the children of our land the most difficult of all 
the subjects to be taught, will be thoroughly 
equipped for their great work. 

II. INSTRUCTION 

The second great law, which, for want of time, 
must be dismissed with few words, may be formu- 
lated in these words : Instruction in the Sunday- 
school, to be efficient, must be characterized by 
rational method. 

If reason and revelation teach us anything, it 
is that we are living in a universe governed by 
law. This truth men recognize in the practical 
affairs of life, — in agriculture, in commerce, in 
the practice of all professions and trades. 
Surely teaching in the Sunday-school should not 
be regarded as a haphazard, lawless affair. Com- 
mon-sense philosophy requires that we use method 
in education, just as in the other affairs of life, 
for as Laurie has pointed out, when philosophy is 
directed to the study of education, it simply in- 
quires as to the ends of human life, and seeks 
to find out and evaluate the processes by which 
these ends may be achieved. This work is nothing 
more or less than the finding out of the method 
for the realization of human progress. 

Within the last half century this subject of 
method in teaching has been studied by many con- 
scientious, thoughtful men and women, and method 



222 EDUCATIONAL PRINCIPLES 

has been placed upon a scientific basis, some laws 
of method having been firmly established. At- 
tention is now directed to a brief survey of only 
five of these laws. 

1. In the mind of the teacher, and also in the 
mind of the pupil, there must be a well-defined 
purpose. Aimless work of any kind is barren of 
desirable results. It begins anywhere and ends 
nowhere. 

2. The mind of the pupil must be prepared 
for the reception of new truth by calling to the 
threshold of his consciousness old ideas related 
thereto. This, among psychologists, is known as 
the law of apperception, a law which the greatest 
teacher of the world continuously exemplified in 
his ministry. 

3. The content of the things taught must have 
inherent elements of interest to the learner. The 
greatest of all pedagogic sins is the sin of weari- 
ness and dreariness. The individuals and the 
groups taught by Jesus of Nazareth heard him 
gladly. This law the late evangelist, Sam Jones, 
thoroughly understood and practiced. You re- 
member that he would occasionally, at the close 
of a service, make some such remark as this : 
"Now, I am going to preach a sermon to-morrow 
night, to men only. Come out and hear me, Bud, 
and I'll promise you anything but a dull time." 

4. General, or abstract, truth must be worked 
out inductively by the learner himself. To state 
it another way, the study of individual notions 



APPLIED TO SUNDAY-SCHOOL 223 

must precede the mastery of general notions. 
This law, also, was one from which the Savior did 
not depart. For example, when the Scribes and 
Pharisees upon one occasion murmured, saying, 
"This man receiveth sinners and eateth with them," 
he gave his answer in three parables, each repre- 
senting in concrete form the general truth which 
he sought to establish. The first of these para- 
bles was that of the lost sheep ; the second, the 
parable of the lost money ; and the third, the 
parable of the prodigal son. Once, twice, and 
thrice, in this vivid, concrete way, did he enforce 
the truth that he came to call sinners, not right- 
eous men, to repentance. 

5. The glory of the human spirit, its power 
and its majesty, are unfolded by its own self-ac- 
tivity. Here again did Jesus manifest obedience 
to pedagogic law. Again and again, in his con- 
troversies with the Scribes and Pharisees, and in 
his conversations in public and in private, his 
direct personal appeals and his thought-provoking 
questions clearly evidenced the fact that he sought 
to stir up the intelligence, quicken the emotions, 
and affect the will of those he was endeavoring to 
teach. The mere memorizing of the text of the 
Sunday-school lesson and of verses of Scripture, 
if not intelligently done, may, in itself, contribute 
to arrested religious development. The child's na- 
ture demands that he understand, at least to some 
degree, what he is called upon to learn. 

This attribute of our nature is certainly taught 



224 EDUCATIONAL PRINCIPLES 

by the Christian religion, which, above all other 
religions, lays emphasis upon the integrity and 
the responsibility of the individual. Our religion 
teaches us that every human being is the child of 
God, who is the center and source of all activity. 
Any one, therefore, who seeks to enslave the in- 
dividual who shares in this self-active nature of 
God himself, not only destroys individual prog- 
ress, but also hinders the growth of Christianity, 
as well. Instead of placing an embargo on inde- 
pendent thinking, we should put a premium 
thereon. 

This leads me to say that the Sunday-school 
teacher should not be too eager for his pupils to 
subscribe to denominational doctrines, many of 
which it is difficult for even the educated mind 
to comprehend. This is certainly true, because 
among men of most superior education and of un- 
questioned godliness there is great variety of be- 
lief. Now, in God's own good time, through the 
conflicts of controversies, through the research of 
students, and through the toil and the prayers of 
devout men hoping for Christian union, there may 
be evolved a system of religion which will be uni- 
versally acceptable. Certainly that day is yet in 
the future, and no one can, without dogmatism, 
seek to circumscribe the thought and bind the con- 
science of his fellows. It is, therefore, unwise, 
if not un-Christian, to attempt to bias the minds 
of the children of this generation in favor of, or 
in opposition to, the minor dogmas which divide 



APPLIED TO SUNDAY-SCHOOL 225 

the children of God. To do so is to violate the 
law of method we have just now been considering, 
and is to rob these children of an opportunity to 
contribute in the best way to the progress of 
Christianity. The fundamental ideas of the 
Kingdom of Heaven, as taught by our Savior him- 
self, it seems to me are enough to emphasize, cer- 
tainly with the children in the lower grades of 
the Sunday-school. These fundamental notions 
are embodied in the two great commandments upon 
which Christ has said hang all the law and the 
prophets, the first being the commandment to love 
God, and the second being the commandment to 
love one's fellows. Around these two great doc- 
trines can be correlated an untold wealth of les- 
sons, which will reveal to our children the beauty 
and the power of the life which the Great Teacher 
would have us live, 

III. CONCLUSION 

Great are the labors involved in the organiza- 
tion and the teaching of Sunday-schools. The 
problems are as numerous and difficult as those 
relating to any other field of thought. We should 
not be impatient of results. The lesson taught us 
by the Savior in the parable of the tares should 
make us willing to work in the midst of purposes 
only partly wrought out; but, while our spirits 
may be willing to wait for the final fruits of our 
hopes, we should determine that every year at least 
some progress shall be made. As a bit of concrete 



EDUCATIONAL PRINCIPLES 

suggestion of this truth, and as a means of inspi- 
ration and encouragement to Sunday-school work- 
ers, I close this address with the following mod- 
ern parable, printed in the Century Magazine 
some years ago: 

AN OUTLINE 

"A boy went to school. He was very little. All 
that he knew he had drawn in with his mother's milk. 
His teacher (who was God) placed him in the lowest 
class and gave him these lessons to learn: 'Thou 
shalt not kill. Thou shalt do no hurt to any hving 
thing. Thou shalt not steal.' So the man did not 
kill; but he was cruel, and he stole. At the end of 
the day (when his beard was gray, when the night 
was come) his teacher (who was God) said: 'Thou hast 
learned not to kill, but the other lessons thou hast not 
learned. Come back to-morrow.' 

"On the morrow he came back a little boy. And 
his teacher (who was God) put him in a class a lit- 
tle higher, and gave him these lessons to learn : 'Thou 
shalt do no hurt to any living thing. Thou shalt not 
steal. Thou shalt not cheat.' So the man did no 
hurt to any living thing; but he stole, and he cheated. 
And at the end of the day (when his beard was gray, 
when the night was come) his teacher (who was God) 
said: 'Thou hast learned to be merciful, but the other 
lessons thou hast not learned. Come back to-mor- 
row.' 

"Again, on the morrow, he came back, a little boy. 
And his teacher (who was God) put him in a class 
yet a little higher, and gave him these lessons to 
learn: 'Thou shalt not steal. Thou shalt not cheat. 



APPLIED TO SUNDAY-SCHOOL 227 

Thou shalt not covet.* So the man did not steal; but 
he cheated, and he coveted. And at the end of the 
day (when his beard was gray, when the night was 
come) his teacher (who was God) said: 'Thou hast 
learned not to steal; but the other lessons thou hast 
not learned. Come back, my child, to-morrow.' 

"This is what I have read in the faces of men and 
women, in the book of the world, and in the scroll 
of the heavens, which is writ with stars," 



XII 

THE EDUCATION OF THE SOUTHERN 
NEGRO 1 

The theme assigned me is so broad and so com- 
plex as to make impossible its thorough discussion 
within the time-limits which this occasion affords. 
The solution of the problem of negro education 
involves to a greater or a less degree the study of 
every important phase of the whole realm of hu- 
man development. Already abundant literature 
which treats of the subject is available. Some of 
it is the result of careful and unprejudiced think- 
ing; much of it, however, has been evolved from 
the inner consciousness of ill-informed and pas- 
sionately biased partisans. The summary and 
evaluation of the magazine articles, books, pam- 
phlets, reports and special studies would alone af- 
ford a task too large to be treated in even a volume 
of cyclopedic proportions. I shall, therefore, con- 
fine this paper, first, to a brief historical survey, 
and, second, to a still more hasty presentation of 
some important principles to control the education 
which the negro has a right to enjoy, and which 
should be guaranteed him by the Southern white 
man with whom his lot is cast. 

1 A paper, a part of which was read in Houston, Texas, 
December 1, 1911, before the Southern Educational Associa- 
tion. 



THE SOUTHERN NEGRO 229 

I. HISTORICAL SURVEY 

The education of negroes in our section of the 
country began long before the Revolutionary 
War, when they were brought as slaves into the 
Southern Colonies. Not a few of them were 
taught to read and to write by Southern white 
women and children, many a wife of a slave-owner 
taking an unfeigned interest in this philanthropic 
work. It has been estimated that, about the time 
of the opening of the Civil War, ten per cent, of 
the adult slaves had, by the benevolent offices of 
their white owners, been elevated out of the class 
of illiterates. 

Instruction was not confined solely to secular 
subjects, as lessons in the Sacred Scriptures and 
the Christian religion, both practical and theoret- 
ical, were quite common. A celebrated man en- 
gaged in this form of benevolence was Thomas 
J. Jackson, who was elected in 1851 professor of 
natural philosophy and artillery tactics in the 
Virginia Military Institute. While serving in this 
capacity he also founded, and conducted until the 
opening of the Civil War, a Sunday-school, the 
pupils consisting of negro slaves of all ages. The 
founder served as superintendent, and the work of 
the school was carried forward with the same grave 
enthusiasm and orderly efficiency as subsequently 
characterized the management of his great mili- 
tary campaigns in Virginia. 

Negroes who had obtained their freedom, either 



230 THE EDUCATION OF 

by gift or by purchase, enjoyed educational priv- 
ileges to an even greater degree. It is true that, 
after the Revolutionary War and after the adop- 
tion of the Constitution and the establishment of 
the national government, there existed in some of 
the Southern states statutory provisions against 
the education of negroes, even free negroes. To 
cite one example: ]\Irs. Margaret Douglass, who 
lived in Norfolk, Virginia, was, in 1853, arrested 
for teaching a school attended by free negro chil- 
dren, the offense being "against the peace and 
dignity of the Commonwealth of Virginia." Be- 
ing duly tried, she was convicted, and a sentence 
of thirty days' imprisonment was imposed upon 
her, a punishment which the trial judge declared 
was to "serve as a terror to those who acknowl- 
edged no rule of action but their own evil will and 
pleasure." Nevertheless, these statutory enact- 
ments denying the privileges of schooling to the 
negroes, did not arrest the development of the 
black race in the South. Everywhere education 
along many vocational lines was compulsory. The 
negro was taught to speak, and in many instances 
to read and to write the English language, and not 
infrequently his conversation with his white mas- 
ter was directed along lines both wholesome and 
stimulating. He was permitted, and even encour- 
aged, to exchange the traditions of African su- 
perstition for the inspiring truths of the Chris- 
tian religion, and to become acquainted with the 
English Bible, the greatest of the world's classics. 



THE SOUTHERN NEGRO 231 

When it is remembered that the great part, 
and the more substantial part, of education con- 
sists in doing, rather than in knowing, in the for- 
mation of right habits rather than in the memo- 
rizing of mere word-forms, one easily reaches the 
conclusion that the educational regimen of the 
negro prior to the Civil War produced splendid 
results, arming him with the intelligence and the 
power that come from the mastery of various 
forms of industrial activity, and endowing him 
with the elemental habits of civilized society. 
That these were bona-fde results is sufficiently evi- 
denced by the fact that, so far as I am informed, 
during the Civil War, when the white men of the 
South able to bear arms were away from their 
homes, and when their families were left to the 
care of the slaves, not one instance of arson or 
other heinous crime was charged against these 
faithful servants. The truth is that the system 
of slavery which obtained in the South was as be- 
nign as was ever known among men, and, while 
there were some exceptions, the rule was that mas- 
ter and servant occupied not only that relation, 
but the relation of friends, also. This view is 
illustrated in a recent novel, "The Long Roll," 
written by Mary Johnston. In describing a short 
visit of a Confederate soldier to his home just 
after the fight of the Monitor and the Merrimac, 
the author relates that the soldier's black mammy 
met him at the top of the steps, exclaiming, "Oh, 
my lamb! oh, glory hallelujah! What you doin' 



232 THE EDUCATION OF 

wid dem wohnout does an' yo' sh'ut tohn dat-er- 
way? What dey been doin' ter you — dat's what I 
wants ter know? ]My po' lamb! Mars Edward, 
don' you laugh kaze mammy done fergit you ain' 
'er baby still." And then the novelist adds, with a 
touch true to nature, "Edward hugged her, and re- 
marked, 'One night in the trenches not long ago I 
heard you singing, mammy. I could not sleep, 
and at last I said I'll put my head in mammy's 
lap, and she'll sing me "The Buzzards and the 
Butterflies," and I will go to sleep. I did it, and 
I went off like a baby.' " ^ 

Whatever may have been the sins of the Old 
South — and every well-informed Southerner is 
now willing to confess at least some of them, and 
that, too, without any degree of disloyalty — her 
development of the negro slaves, as described 
above, is convincing evidence of her intelligence 
and philanthropy. In those old days the love of 
money, which is the root of more than one grievous 
evil, had certainly not taken possession of our 
fathers, and had not blinded them to the discharge 
of their duties toward a race which, in the Provi- 
dence of God, had been placed in their keeping. 

During the Civil War the education of the ne- 
gro, as well as of the white, children, was sadly 
interrupted. Nevertheless, his experience in car- 
ing for his master's family and property confirmed 
some habits the negro had already acquired. 

2 "The Long Roll," p. 176. 



THE SOUTHERN NEGRO 233 

There were, furthermore, philanthropic people in 
the North who established some schools for ne- 
groes who had refugeed to Union camps, and the 
United States Government also established schools 
more or less effectively in various places, and pro- 
vided the means for conducting them. They were, 
at best, most elementary in their nature, and were 
administered without either expert teaching or 
supervision. When a people are engaged in a 
mighty military struggle, one can not expect that 
serious attention will be given to consideration of 
plans for the promotion of educational progress. 
Napoleon remarked on one occasion when the Swiss 
educator, Pestalozzi, was seeking an interview with 
the great First Consul, "I cannot be bothered 
about questions of A B C." ^ 

Inspired by the efforts of the Emancipation 
League of Boston and by other freedman's aid as- 
sociations. Congress, on March 3, 1865, passed 
the bill which established the Freedman's Bureau. 
Gen. Oliver O. Howard, the commander of the 
Army of Tennessee, was appointed Commissioner, 
and, in compliance with the statute, he appointed 
ten assistant commissioners, who severally had 

3 On his return to Switzerland Pestalozzi was asked, 
"Did you see Bonaparte?" "No," replied Pestalozzi, "I 
did not see Bonaparte, and Bonaparte did not see me." 
Concerning this circumstance Quick, in his "Educational 
Reformers" (page 343), writes: "The whirligig of time 
brings in his revenges, and before the close of the century 
Europe already thinks more in amount, and immeasurably 
more in respect of Pestalozzi than of Bonaparte." 



234 THE EDUCATION OF 

charge of the ten districts into which the South 
was divided. Among these assistant commission- 
ers was Col. John Eaton Jr. (afterwards United 
States Commissioner of Education), who had 
charge of the District of Columbia, including 
Maryland and three counties in Virginia. At first 
Arkansas and Texas constituted one district ; but 
somewhat later Texas became a separate district, 
and Gen. E. M. Gregory was appointed Assistant 
Commissioner therefor. In his honor a school for 
negro pupils was founded in Houston, Texas, and 
was named the Gregory Institute. 

General Howard was a man of excellent char- 
acter. While he was faithful to the doctrine of 
emancipation, and while he believed that the negro 
is capable of improvement, he could by no means 
be classed among the ultra-radical abolitionists of 
his time. He had the confidence of military men 
and of philanthropic associations. Concerning 
him General Sherman said, "I cannot imagine that 
matters that may involve the future of four mil- 
lions of souls could have been put in more chari- 
table or more benevolent hands." ^ 

The work of the Bureau was divided into four 
departments: (1) Land; (2) OflBcial acts relat- 
ing to labor, schools, quartermaster and commis- 
sary supplies; (3) Financial matters; (4) Medi- 
cal and hospital service. The educational func- 

4 Paul Skeels Pierce's "The Freedman's Bureau," Vol. 
3, No. 1, p. 47, State University of Iowa, Studies in Soci- 
ology, Economics, Politics and History. 



THE SOUTHERN NEGRO S35 

tions of the Bureau were under the general direc- 
tion of a special officer in Washington ; but the ten 
assistant commissioners appointed superintendents 
of education to supervise the schools of their re- 
spective districts. 

When the Bureau was established, there were 
already in existence some schools attended by 
freedmen and refugees. Some of them were day 
schools for the younger negro children; others 
were night schools, in which older boys and girls, 
as well as adults, were instructed. There were also 
some industrial schools, in which women were in- 
structed as seamstresses, and Sunday-schools, in 
which the elements of secular and religious educa- 
tion were taught. The Bureau sought to co- 
operate with the individuals and the benevolent as- 
sociations by whom these schools had been 
founded. 

Still greater powers relating to education were 
given to the Bureau by the act of July 16, 1866, 
the Commissioner being directed to lease buildings 
for school purposes whenever teachers and means 
of instruction could be provided without cost to 
the government, and he was to furnish such pro- 
tection as might be required for the safe conduct 
of these schools. Congress appropriated $521,- 
000.00 for school expenses, and also provided ad- 
ditional funds to be derived from the sale and 
lease of property which had formerly belonged to 
the Confederate Government, but which the United 
States had acquired by confiscation or otherwise. 



S36 THE EDUCATION OF 

Another act, passed June 24, 1868, directed that 
all unexpended balances in the hands of the Com- 
missioner, not required for the due execution of 
the law, might, in his discretion, be devoted to 
the education of frecdmen and refugees. 

In 1872 the Bureau was abolished by law ; its 
work had ceased to be effective in 1870, the last 
year for which Congress granted it an appropria- 
tion. In the year last named the Bureau received 
reports from 2,677 day and night secular schools, 
in which were 3,300 teachers and about 150,000 
pupils, and from 1,562 Sunday-schools with 6,007 
teachers and about 100,000 pupils. 

It is easy to demonstrate that the efforts of the 
Commissioner and his subordinates to educate the 
negroes in the South were far from successful. 
The greater part of the instruction given was 
confined to exceedingly elementary phases of edu- 
cation, and the instruction, itself, was too often 
decidedly poor in quality. The negro scholastic 
population in the South in 1870 was nearly 1,700,- 
000, while only about 150,000 were in the secular 
schools. With less than one-tenth of the chil- 
dren at school, with almost the entire adult negro 
population grossly ignorant, with teachers ill-pre- 
pared for their duties, the education of the negro 
was in an exceedingly crude, not to say lamentable, 
condition. In this connection, however, one should 
not forget that the ravages of war and the even 
more grievous afflictions visited upon tHe South 
during the days of Reconstruction, made it well- 



THE SOUTHERN NEGRO 237 

nigh impossible to establish an efficient system of 
public education for her white children, not to 
speak of the children of the former slaves. 

Dr. J. L. M. Curry, who was a valiant Confed- 
erate soldier, who was for many years general 
agent of the trustees of the Peabody fund, who 
was the consistent and courageous friend of the 
negro, and whose name is a household word in 
educational circles in the South, thus sums up 
the value of the educational work of the Bureau: 

"What was done locally and individually was al- 
most universally short-lived and in utter misapprehen- 
sion of conditions and methods." ^ 

The same mistake was made in education as in 
the political treatment of the South — the powers 
in control overlooked the fact that the first in- 
dispensable requirement for success in any social 
undertaking is a thorough understanding of the 
conditions that obtain. On this point Booker T. 
Washington, one of the really great leaders of his 
race, remarks: 

"Men have tried to use with these simple people 
just freed from slavery and with no past, no inherited 
traditions of understanding, the same methods of edu- 
cation which they have used in New England, with all 
its inherited traditions and desires." ^ 

6 Paul Skeels Pierce's "The Freedman's Bureau," Vol. 
3, No. 1, p. 84, State University of Iowa, Studies in Soci- 
ology, Economics, Politics and History. 

« "Future of the American Negro," p. 25. 



238 THE EDUCATION OF 

The Bureau should surely not be hold entirely 
responsible for the mistaken policy which resulted 
in giving the negro a mere smattering of culture, 
for the teachers and the benevolent societies very 
largely determined the methods actually employed, 
the Bureau's activities being confined chiefly to the 
financial side of the difficult problem, the annual 
amounts distributed for educational purposes 
ranging from $27,000 in 1865 to more than $1,- 
000,000 in 1870, and the total sum apportioned 
from June 1, 1865, to September 1, 1871, being 
more than $5,000,000. 

While it is true that the schools under the con- 
trol of the Bureau could not, by any grace of 
courtesy be regarded as efficient, yet there is un- 
questioned evidence that its work emphasized the 
necessity for elementary education, that it demon- 
strated the importance of systematic administra- 
tion, and that it aided in the development of pub- 
lic opinion in the direction of higher education, 
especially for the men and women to be employed 
as teachers. It is in the higher institutions, such 
as Fisk University, Howard University, and 
Hampton Institute, the founding of which was 
encouraged by the Bureau, and in similar institu- 
tions founded since 1870, that the Southern negro 
finds opportunity to fit himself for genuine serv- 
ice. 

Public education for the negro at public ex- 
pense in the several Southern states during the era 
of Reconstruction requires no extended treatment, 



THE SOUTHERN NEGRO 239 

for, while the contsitutions adopted by the carpet- 
bag governments included articles relating to the 
organization and conduct of systems of public free 
schools, these educational measures did not be- 
come effective. The antipathy of the Southern 
people to the rule of the carpetbaggers inspired 
resistance, both passive and active, to educational, 
as well as to other governmental policies the Re- 
constructionists attempted to establish. The free 
schools were generally regarded by the white man 
as part and parcel of that system which sought to 
enslave him and place him under the domination 
of his former slaves and their abolition friends. 
The Reconstruction era, which was responsible for 
more evils and which engendered fiercer passions 
and more deep-seated prejudices than the Civil 
War, was fortunately brought to a close early in 
the seventies of the last century, and the people of 
our common country. North and South, are now 
practically unanimous in the opinion that the ef- 
fort to restore the Union by reducing one-half of 
its people to a state of vassalage and by seeking 
to keep them in subjection by force, was the great- 
est political blunder made by the party that had 
been victorious in war, and had destroyed the in- 
stitution of slavery in the United States. 

When the white people in each of the Southern 
states regained their liberty and took charge of 
their own state governments, they at once began 
the stupendous task of providing for a system of 
public free schools, and, to their credit be it said. 



240 THE EDUCATION OF 

opportunities for free education were extended to 
whites and blacks alike, at least so far as constitu- 
tional and statutory measures are concerned. It 
is true that, immediately after the close of the 
Reconstruction era, there was some opposition to 
popular education, especially for negroes ; yet the 
public school idea steadily won its way, and to- 
day no people in the wide world are more devoted 
to the democratic ideal manifested in public edu- 
cation at public expense than are to be found in 
America south of Mason and Dixon's line. No- 
where does there exist a stronger, a more militant 
conviction that the safety and perpetuity of de- 
mocracy is dependent upon popular intelligence 
and virtue. The South is to-day irrevocably com- 
mitted to the doctrine that, as President Lamar 
once wrote in a message to the Congress of the 
Republic of Texas, "Cultivated mind is the guard- 
ian genius of democracy. It is the only dictator 
which freemen acknowledge and the only security 
which freemen desire." 

Thirty or forty years is a very short time in 
the life of a people, and it is an exceedingly brief 
period in the evolution of a great institution like 
a system of public education. The South, how- 
ever, in this short space of time has accomplished 
educational results that are, indeed, not far from 
marvelous. The testimony to support this view 
is strong and abundant. The late United States 
Commissioner of Education, Dr. William T. Har- 
ris, declared at a National Congress of Education, 



THE SOUTHERN NEGRO 241 

held in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1895, that "the South- 
ern people in the organization and management of 
systems of public schools manifest wonderful and 
remarkable self-sacrifice." 

Concerning educational advantages supplied to 
the negro, competent witnesses living North, as 
well as South, men of African, as well as of Cau- 
casian, descent, are agreed that in all the history 
of the world there has been no higher manifesta- 
tion of justice and liberality by a superior to an 
inferior race than the South has shown in its ef- 
forts to improve the intellectual condition of the 
black population. Of the many men who have 
spoken on this point is Dr. Lyman Abbott, editor 
of The Outlook. Below I give his opinion, an 
opinion which is typical, and which is to be found 
in an article written by him and published in Vol- 
ume 83, pp. 634-639, of that journal: 

"While Northern benevolence has spent tens of 
thousands of dollars in the South to educate the ne- 
groes, Southern patriotism has spent hundreds of 
thousands of dollars for the same purpose. This has 
been done voluntarily and without aid from the Fed- 
eral Government." 

Out of their poverty the Southern states have 
contributed millions of dollars to educate the ne- 
groes. It is impossible to determine the exact 
amount of this expenditure, because separate ac- 
counts for negro education have not been kept by 



242 THE EDUCATION OF 

the several state governments. In only two or 
three of the states are they so kept at this time. 
The state of Texas, from 1870 to the close of the 
scholastic year ending August 31, 1911, expended 
upon common school education for negroes about 
$23,500,000, and for the support of the Prairie 
View Normal School, an institution for the train- 
ing of negro teachers, there has been expended 
since 1879 $715,382. The estimated value of 
school houses and school property used by the ne- 
gro schools of that state is $1,500,000, the 
greater portion of which was derived from taxes 
paid, and from donations made, by white citizens. 
In the state of Virginia there has been spent since 
1871 between fifteen and eighteen millions of dol- 
lars upon the common school education of the ne- 
gro, and that state is now spending about $600,- 
000 a year therefor. 

The figures given for Texas and Virginia may 
be properly regarded as fairly representative of 
all the Southern states. Not one of these states 
has failed to provide for common school education 
for negroes on substantially equal terms with the 
whites, and, in addition, normal schools have been 
founded and maintained in order that competent 
teachers may be trained for work in the negro 
schools. In a letter I received some days ago 
from Monroe N. Work, who is in charge of the 
Department of Research and Records in the Tus- 
kegee Normal and Industrial Institute, he esti- 
mates that the amount devoted to negro education 



THE SOUTHERN NEGRO 243 

in the South for the forty years ending with the 
academic session of 1910-11 is, approximately, one 
hundred and sixty-six millions of dollars. When 
it is remembered that the negroes own a very small 
per cent, of the taxable property in the South, 
the figures given above are convincing evidence of 
the sincere desire of the Southern white man to 
give to the negro the blessings of at least a com- 
mon school education. It should, furthermore, be 
remembered that, while the negro schools, even 
to-day, are not as efficient as they should be, and 
while many of the negro children are not matricu- 
lated in even these inferior schools, the public 
schools for the white children, especially in rural 
districts, are themselves far from ideal. There is 
reason for believing, however, that in the fullness 
of time, with the continuance of that progress 
which forms a bright page in the educational his- 
tory of our country, the public schools for blacks, 
as well as whites, will function with such efficiency 
as will guarantee reasonably satisfactory results. 
This optimistic view was well expressed, but not 
understood, by a little piccaninny, who, some years 
ago, when directed by his teacher to form a sen- 
tence containing the word delight, wrote the fol- 
lowing inspiring words on his slate: "De light 
am a breakin'." 

II. SOME PRINCIPLES OF THE PROGRAM 
FOR NEGRO EDUCATION 

I regret that this important topic must neces- 



244 THE EDUCATION OF 

sarilj be dismissed with most superficial discus- 
sion. It will, no doubt, in the years to come, 
receive at the hands of educational leaders the 
attention which its magnitude and difficulty merit 
and require. Only six principles, or planks, in 
the program will now be submitted, and some of 
them without elaboration. 

1. In the negro are to he found the essential 
elements of human nature, and, therefore, he can 
he educated. He is not an anthropoid ape, which 
has no capacity for real thinking and which re- 
sponds only to instinct and to mere training. 
The one great human attribute in which all men, 
including the negro, share, is reason, which gives 
insight into the relations of things, a result which 
marks both the beginning and the end of wisdom. 

This plank of the program requires that we 
carefully examine our prejudices against the black 
race, and determine whether these prejudices be 
founded upon facts. There is no doubt that ra- 
cial influences exist. Thorndike is of the opinion 
that "differences in remote ancestry account for 
a very large percentage of the differences among 
men, if we consider both their direct effect upon 
original nature and their indirect effect through 
the differences in training which commonly paral- 
lel them." ^ 

But, while the racial element is to be considered 
a factor, environment, also, must undoubtedly be 
reckoned with. The value of this second factor is 
7Thorndike's "Individuality," p. 35. 



THE SOUTHERN NEGRO 245 

not yet known. How far training can modify and 
overcome original mental characteristics, nobody 
has yet determined. Boaz, in his work entitled 
"The Mind of Primitive Man," published this 
year, devotes a chapter to race problems in the 
United States. Concerning the question, how far 
undesirable traits now found in the negro popula- 
tion are due to racial influences, and how far they 
are due to social environment for which that 
population is not accountable, he reaches this con- 
clusion : 

"To this question anthropology can give the de- 
cided answer that the traits of African culture as ob- 
served in the aboriginal home of the negro are those 
of a healthy, primitive people, with a considerable 
degree of personal initiative, with a talent for organ- 
ization, and with imaginative power, with technical 
skill and thrift. Neither is a warlike spirit absent in 
the race, as proved by the mighty conquerors who 
overthrew states and founded new empires, and by 
the courage of the armies that follow the bidding of 
their leaders. There is nothing to prove that licen- 
tiousness, shiftless laziness, lack of initiative, are 
fundamental characteristics of the race. Everything 
points out that these qualities are the result of social 
conditions, rather than of hereditary traits." ^ 

He remarks, with emphasis, however, that it 
would be altogether a fallacious view to assume 
that there are no differences in the makeup of the 
8 Boaz's "The Mind of Primitive Man," p. 271. 



246 THE EDUCATION OF 

negro race and other races, and that their activi- 
ties should run in the same line. I am reminded 
here that this conclusion of Professor Boaz was 
once expressed by a good old uncle in the black 
belt to a hot-gospel reformer who had come South, 
bringing with him idealistic notions concerning 
people of African descent. As the missionary was 
conversing one day with Uncle Josh, a Caucasian 
gentleman living in the neighborhood appeared. 
The old negro at once raised his hat, and with 
cordial courtesy remarked, "Good mawnin', Marse 
George." "Good morning, Joshua," was the re- 
ply, and the negro's white friend passed on. 
When he was out of earshot, the philanthropist 
from the North said, "What do you mean by call- 
ing that man 'Marse George'? Don't you know 
that Lincoln freed you, and that you have as many 
rights as anybody, and that you are as good as 
anybody, that you are as good as I am?" "Oh, 
yas, suh," said the wise black man, "I knows I'se 
as good as you is ; but you and me and twenty mo' 
like us ain't as good as Marse George." 

Whatever determination shall finally be reached 
concerning the respective values of racial inher- 
itance and of modification by environment, how- 
ever well-founded may be certain racial instincts, 
it seems clear that, in the education of the negro, 
he should be granted every reasonable opportunity 
to make all the advancement of which he is capa- 
ble. To deny him such opportunity is unkind, 
undemocratic, and unsafe. 



THE SOUTHERN NEGRO 247 

This view of the question is held, I believe, by 
the great majority of the better-informed white 
people of the South, and it has led the directors 
of the Young Men's Christian Associations in 
Southern colleges to incorporate into their work 
for this year the systematic study of a treatise 
which is entitled "Negro Life in the South," and 
of which Dr. W. N. Weatherford, a native Texan, 
is the author. I am informed that more than five 
thousand college students are now engaged in mas- 
tering that excellent book. 

The rational attitude of mind toward the black 
race, as manifested in this new movement of the 
Y. M. C. A., was eloquently described a few j^ears 
ago in these words by that great Bishop of the 
Methodist Church, the late Charles B. Galloway: 

"The right education of the negro is at once a duty 
and a necessity. All the resources of the school 
should be exhausted in elevating his character, im- 
pro\ing his condition, and increasing his capacity as 
a citizen. . . . From the declaration that educa- 
has made the negro more immoral and criminal, I am 
constrained to dissent. . . . Indisputable facts 
attest the statement that education and higher attend- 
ant influences have elevated the standard and tone of 
morals among the negroes of the South. ... I 
believe it is perfectly safe to say that not a single 
case of criminal assault has ever been charged against 
a student of a mission school for negroes founded and 
sustained by a great Christian denomination. 
This is no question for small politicians, but for broad 



248 THE EDUCATION OF 

patriotic statesmen. It is not for non-resident theo- 
rists, but for practical publicists; not for academic 
sentimentalists, but for clear-visioned humanitarians. 
All our dealings with these people should be in the 
spirit of the Man of Galilee." ^ 

2. Education being a process of conscious evo- 
lution, the negro himself must, hy his own self- 
active efforts, reach higher levels of intelligence 
and character. The observance of this principle 
will lead him to exercise great patience, and the 
white man even greater. As long as there is "first 
the blade, and then the ear, and then the full 
corn in the ear" in the physical world, we must 
not expect development with lightning-like ra- 
pidity in any social institution. 

If this principle be correct, the negro children 
should be taught by negro teachers. In Charles- 
ton, South Carolina, however, a contrary policy 
has long obtained. So unique is the educational 
experiment made in that city that I give below 
a letter received last month from Mr. W. K. Tate, 
the State Supervisor of Elementary Rural 
Schools in South Carolina: 

"Your information that young women belonging to 
the best Southern families are engaged in teaching in 
the public schools for negroes in Charleston is correct. 
This policy has been pursued ever since the establish- 
ment of the public school system in Charleston. The 
public school system of Charleston originated before 
the war, and at the outbreak of the war between the 

9 "An Era of Progress and Promise," p. 557. 



THE SOUTHERN NEGRO 249 

states there were four large public schools in operation 
in Charleston. The people have never regarded the 
public school system as a product of reconstruction^ 
but as their own institution. 

"The negroes have always been in the majority in 
the city of Charleston. The explanation of the fact 
that the white teachers are employed in the negro 
schools may be stated in substance as follows: The 
white people realize that the teaching which the ne- 
groes receive under white instruction is much better 
than that which they would receive with negro teach- 
ers. They wish to get along pleasantly with the ne- 
groes, and to do so they believe that their instruction 
should be in the hands of the white people. There 
has never been the slightest friction between the races 
in Charleston, and the people attribute this to the 
fact that the negroes have been brought up under 
white discipline and white instruction. 

"The young women who teach in the negro schools 
do not, in the slightest degree, lose their social pres- 
tige. They are transferred from the negro schools 
to the white schools with the greatest freedom, and 
many of the best principals now employed in the city 
began their work as principals in negro schools. The 
majority of negroes themselves prefer the white teach- 
ers. I have had from no less authority than Dr. 
George S. Dickerman, who has observed widely, that 
the discipline and instruction in the negro schools in 
Charleston are the best he has seen in the United 
States. 

"I was connected with the Charleston schools for 
twelve years, serving for some years as Assistant 
Superintendent of Schools. Some of the most efficient 
teachers in the city are teaching in negro schools. 
There are evident objections to the system; but it is 



250 THE EDUCATION OF 

a sufficient answer to say in Charleston that it has 
worked well, and has certainly produced an under- 
standing between the races I have found nowhere else. 
"I know of no other Southern city in which this con- 
dition prevails." 

This principle provides, furthermore, for the 
selection of such culture-materials and such ad- 
ministrative machinery and such methods of in- 
struction as are dictated by concrete, rather than 
abstract, idealism. The negro race, being, rela- 
tively speaking, in the infant stage of civilized 
life, should not be expected to undergo all the 
training that belongs to higher races. This 
principle undoubtedly justifies great emphasis 
upon vocational studies in the school, for the basis 
of human life and human civilization is physical. 
It does not imply, however, that the negro should 
be compelled to level down in his education to 
preparation for becoming a mere work-animal, 
for such a policy would disregard the higher hu- 
man elements with which even the lowest of races 
is endowed. 

The next three principles I shall not discuss, 
but shall merely formulate as follows: 

3. The professional education of teachers is 

an indispensable agency for the elevation of the 

negroes in the South. ^^ 

10 How meager are the qualifications of the negro teacher, 
is shown in the following tables, which refer to Texas and 
which reveal a situation no more unfortunate than exists 
in other states in the South: 



THE SOUTHERN NEGRO 251 

4. Efficient supervision of the negro schools 
can be accomplished only hy professional experts 
having adequate opportunities for the discharge 
of their functions.^^ 

5. The compulsory education of the negro is de- 
manded upon both educational and political 
grounds. 



Certificated Negro Teachers in the Common School Dis- 
tricts, and in Independent Districts with Fewer than 
150 Scholastics, in Texas for the Year 1909-10. 

Holders of County Certificates. 

Third grade 171 

Second grade 829 

First grade 39 

Permanent 6 

Total 1045 

Holders of State Certificates. 

Second grade 823 

First grade 201 

Permanent 186 

Total 1210 

Graduates. 

Of high schools 92 

Of normal schools 159 

Of Colleges and universities 45 

Total 296 

11 One has only to read the recent report of Jackson 
Davis, State Supervisor of Rural Elementary Schools in 
Virginia, in order to be convinced of the importance of 
the supervision of negro schools. 



252 THE SOUTHERN NEGRO 

6. The sixth principle may be stated thus: 
The education of the Southern negro should be 
marked hy the continuous manifestation of the 
spirit of cooperation on the part of all -who are 
concerned in the welfare of the nation. Such a 
spirit will lead to the study of actual conditions, 
facts will be kept in authentic records, and in 
time we shall have at our command a great wealth 
of material which will enable us to discover the 
wisest plans for promoting the educational prog- 
ress of the negro, as well as the means best 
adapted to that great work. Inspired and di- 
rected by such a spirit we may hope to accomplish 
what seems to be the will of God in extending to 
the negro race in America the blessings of democ- 
racy, along with the obligations which democracy 
imposes. 



APPENDIX 



APPENDIX 

Education in German Universities for Winter Semester 
1905-1906, from Deutscher Universitdts Kalendar (Vol. 
I), Leipzig, 1905. 



University 



Berlin 



Bonn 



Breslau 



Freiburg 



Giessen 



Gottingen 



Title of 
Instructor 



Prof. 
Hon. Prof. 

Priv. Doc. 



Priv. Doc. 

Prof. 

Hon. Prof. 
Priv. Doc. 

Prof. 
Priv. Doc. 



Appointed 
Docent 



Prof. 

Prof. 
Lecturer 

Priv. Doc. 



Name of course with number 
of hours per week 



Pedagogy (4). 

(1) School supervision (2). 

(2) Pedagogical Colloquium 
(1). 

Outline of a system of peda- 
gogy and presentation of 
most important Pedagogi- 
cal systems since 16th cent. 
(2). 

Education and instruction in 
the 19th cent. (2). 

History of pedagogy (2). 

Gymnasial pedagogy (2). 

Practical directions for carry- 
ing out simple experiments 
(3). 

Theory of pedagogy (1). 

Pedagogy and child psychology 
with introduction to his- 
tory of pedagogy (4). 

Evolution of higher schools in 
Germany in 19th century; 
methods of teaching Ger- 
man; practice teaching (?). 

Elements of didactics and 
methodology of instruction 
(2). 

Mental life of the child (1). 
The teaching of modern lan- 
guages in Gr. Britain (1). 

(1) Physics in the higher 
schools (2). 

(2) Exercises in the construc- 
tion and use of physical 
apparatus (3). 

255 



256 



APPENDIX 



University 
Greifswald 



Halle 



Heidelberg 



Leipzig 



Title of 
Instructor 



Asst. Prof. 



Hon. Prof. 



Priv. Doc, 



Hon. Prof. 



Appointed 
Docent 
Prof. 



Prof. 



Asst. Prof. 

Asst. Prof. 
Priv. Doc. 



Name of course with number 
of hours per week 



Hebrew grammar, comparative 
study for future teachers 
of Hebrew (3). 

(1) Introd. to pedagogical 
classics of 18th and 19th 
centuries (1). 

(2) History of pedagogy since 
close of middle ages (2). 

(I) General pedagogy (with 
reference to experimental 
didactics) (3). 

(-2) Experimental psychology 
for teachers (?) 

(1) History of education, of 
instruction, and of peda- 
gogical theories (2). 

(2) Readings in pedagogical 
classics (1). 

Practical pedagogical exercises 

(1) History of pedagogy (3). 

(2) Philosophical - Pedagogical 
seminary (IJ). 

(1) Pedagogy and its history 
(5). 

(2) Pedagogical seminary, (a) 
practical exercises, (b) 
visits to educational insti- 
tutions (1). 

(1) Pedagogy of higher schools 

(2)- 

(2) Practical pedagogical sem- 
inary (2). 

Lectures and exercises in the 
pedagogy of chemistry 
(5-6). 

Sciences subsidiary to psychol- 
ogy (Physiology of sense 
organs and of the brain, 
mental diseases, psychology 
of development (2). 



APPENDIX 



257 



University 



Leipzig 
Marburg 

Miinster 

Strasburg 

Jena 



Title of 
Instructor 



Appointed 
Docent (?) 



Prof. 

Priv. Doc. 
Prof. 
Lecturer 
Hon. Prof. 

Priv. Doc. 



Name of course with number 
of hours per week 



Pedagogical seminary for 
teachers of agriculture (in 
connection with Agricul- 
tural Institute) (?). 

(1) History of pedagogy (3). 

(■2) Pedagogical studies in 
Herbart and his school (2). 

Child psychology and experi- 
mental pedagogy (1). 

History of modern pedagogy 
(3). 

Education in England (in Eng- 
lish language) (1). 

(1) Herbart's life and teach- 

ing (!)• 

(2) Special didactics (3). 

(3) Pedagogical seminary (?). 
Herbart's general pedagogy 

(2). 
Practice school (elementary 
grades) work with 2 fel- 
lows as assistants. (?). 



SUMMARY 

Regular full professors giving whole time 

Honorary professors giving whole time 2 

Total number of professors and ass't profs, giving part 

time 15 

Number of privat docenten (part time) 11 

Number of lecturers and others 6 

Total number engaged in giving any work in education 
in 21 German Universities 34 

Note. — No work in pedagogy was announced for the Winter 
Semester 1905-06 in Erlangen, Kiel, Konigsberg, 
Munich, Rostock, Tubingen, and Wurzburg, 



C 19^ 






./.'^k**% <^^';^S y^^^X c,Q 



\*^T^\/ V*^^''^^^ V*^*'*.^^*^ "^^ 













./■5^--/ \*•T^%T.^^*" %-.?^.\/ \'' 










^o- \'W\/ V--^'-/ ^/^■••*.*- 






BCOKBINDISC 

C.rMn.ville Pa 









